The 1979 film City on Fire has a strong message --
Fire Chief Henley (Henry Fonda):
"It just takes one man.
Your neighbour. My neighbour.
One man can destroy a city."
First proposed to be filmed in Edmonton, the story of how one man, a refinery worker, takes revenge on his workplace and thus engulfs a city in flames.
Amazing what 53,000 gallons of oil can do!
Luckily for Edmonton, Refinery Row at Cloverbar is downstream of the city. not only for drinking water purposes but also what if thousands of of litres of oil or gasoline leaked into the North Sask. River and then caught fire.
park trees catch on fire, then buildings, cars, etc.
In the movie A City On Fire, a firestorm robs the air of oxygen, protentially suffocating thousands.
Starring Henry Fonda, Shelley Winters, Leslie Nielsen, Ava Gardner and more.
Either Edmonton said no - it would have scared Edmontonians to become aware of the intense danger potentially posed by the oil, gasoline and natural gas stored in the refineries just east of the city,
either because of that or for some other reason, Edmonton was ruled out.
So the movie was filmed in Montreal, a city that apparently was already thought to be poorly governed and the kind of place where a shoddy unsafe hospital would be built.
At least the hard-working selfless nurse played by Shelly Winters got hers back at the corrupt mayor, saying "well, I am not going to vote for you!"
Montreal was the kind of place where a train could roll into a downtown and explode with results probably not much different from what is shown in this film.
The movie, filmed at the then-extravagant cost of $400,000, is uneven. Although said to be a U.S. city - with U.S. flags in evidence - a main character speaks in French on the phone with no reason given.
I had not heard of a water tunnel but it may be a useful technique even if looking like quite waste of water!
Remind me not to be trapped in a hospital surrounded by a ring of fire!
City on Fire is available for free viewing on TUBI online.
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