Disclaimer: All characters belong to HiT Entertainment.
Through Sam's Eyes
Norman-man vs Firedog
Series 11 Episode 1
I can't believe how quiet it's been so far this summer, I thought as I leaned on the balcony railing at the Pontypandy fire station. We were a month into the summer school holidays, which was also the hottest time of the year, and yet we had almost nothing to do. The biggest incident we had to deal with since the start of the holidays was rescuing Charlie after his boat ran out of fuel. At least I've finally managed to catch up on all my paperwork…
"Sam?" Elvis called from the doorway behind me. "Would you like an ice lolly?"
"Yes, but I'll have it later, thanks Elvis," I replied as I made my way back inside. "Save it for me, please."
"Okay, Sam." Elvis closed the door behind me, to help keep the air conditioning in. He returned to the kitchen to start cooking lunch.
Ellie was standing over near the wall-mounted calendar, so I joined her. I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. "Looks like Pontypandy's nearly gone a whole month without a fire!"
"Only one more day to go," Ellie said excitedly as she pointed to today's date – Saturday the thirtieth of June 2018.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Penny place a document down on my desk, for me to deal with when I had the time. "Do you think this has anything to do with the fact that Norman Price has been staying at his Auntie Phyllis', Sam?" she asked as she came over to us.
I laughed as I finally understood why it had been so quiet lately. "That could have something to do with it. A- oh…" I was interrupted by the sound of the incoming emergency alert going off downstairs.
"Ah! I'm thinking he might be back," Penny reasoned, just as the alarms went off.
Shaking my head, I headed towards the nearest fireman's pole and I slid down it. Ellie followed me, while Penny slid down the other one.
"Dilys Price is being chased by a robotic dog outside the Cutprice Supermarket!" Station Officer Steele announced over the loudspeakers just as I reached the bottom of the pole.
Oh, great! Just what we didn't need. Another minor incident… "Ellie, you come with me in Venus," I instructed as my adrenalin rush subsided. We grabbed our firefighting uniforms off the rack and started to put them on. "Looks like we won't need you this time, Penny. Sorry."
"No worries, Sam," Penny replied, and she made her way towards the stairs.
Once we'd put on our uniforms, Ellie and I got into Venus, with myself behind the wheel. Even though this wasn't a serious emergency, I put on the lights and sirens anyway as I drove Venus out of the appliance bay.
"You always have to treat emergency callouts seriously," I explained to Ellie as I accelerated Venus just over the speed limit. "Even if you think they're not serious ones. Something could happen to turn something minor into something serious while you're on your way."
"Understood, Sam," Ellie replied.
I cast a quick smile at her. Both Ellie and Arnold were still on probation as trainee firefighters, but I was sure that it wouldn't be long before Ellie's probationary period ended. I wasn't too sure about Arnold yet.
When we arrived at the Cutprice Supermarket, I drove Venus onto the wrong side of the road before I parked her. It took me less than a second to analyse the situation and see what needed to be done. The first thing I saw was Norman riding on the back of the robotic dog, which was out of control. He was wearing his ridiculous Norman-man outfit again. James, Sarah and Mandy were standing nearby, watching Norman trying, in vain, to stop the robot. And finally, I spotted poor Dilys halfway up a lamppost, clinging on for dear life.
How on earth did she climb up there? I wondered as I bolted from Venus. Just then, the robotic dog flipped over onto its side right in front of me, throwing Norman off. Leaving him to Ellie to deal with, I ran over to the lamppost to help Dilys. Meanwhile, James flicked the switch on the robotic dog's underside, turning it off.
"Ah! Down you get, Dilys," I said as I helped her scramble down. "It's safe now."
Dilys turned to face James. "Oh! You brave boy! You saved my poor little Norman."
"No, he didn't!" Norman protested. He was still lying on the ground where he'd fallen. "I was getting off anyway."
Seeing that Norman was okay, Ellie gave him a pat on the shoulder before she went to inspect the robot dog.
"Er, well at least you're all okay," I said. Then I looked at the robot. "But what is that thing?"
Ellie was looking at the robot's undercarriage. "Oh! There's a label. Firedog Two-Thousand…"
"Ah…!" I said as it all finally made sense to me. I turned to see the Firedog's creator running towards us. "Joe! What a surprise seeing you here."
Arnold and Radar were with Joe, but they weren't puffing and panting like he was. Joe bent over for a moment to catch his breath.
"Did the Firedog Two-Thousand work?" Arnold asked innocently.
"If it was supposed to chase Dilys up a lamppost, then I'd say yes," Ellie quipped.
"Arnold has been helping me invent a robotic dog for firefighting situations that are too dangerous for Radar," Joe explained.
"It's in it's early stages," Arnold added.
Well, I suppose it's something productive for him to do, I thought. After all, there hasn't been a lot for him to do at the fire station lately.
Radar dropped a stick beside Firedog, and he barked twice.
"Sorry, Radar," I said. "I don't think that, er…dog knows how to play."
Disappointed, Radar picked up his stick and he walked away behind us. He lay down and started chewing on the stick.
"The main problem we're having with the Firedog Two-Thousand, is that it doesn't seem to recognise people," Joe explained as he knelt down beside his invention. He started examining it for damage.
"Hmm…" Arnold mused. "It might just be a matter of adapting the biometric identification system."
"It might just be a matter of throwing it into the recycling," Ellie whispered to me.
I started to laugh, but not wanting to hurt Joe's feelings, I caught myself, covering my laugh with a cough. "Ahem! Well, whatever you do, I think it's best you get the er…Firedog Two-Thousand…safely back to your workshop, Joe."
"I will, Sam," Joe agreed. "I will!"
The children started arguing amongst themselves then. However, seeing that the drama was all over, Ellie and I made our way back over to Venus, and we got inside.
"Well, that was different," Ellie remarked as I turned Venus around and started driving back to the fire station.
"Always expect the unexpected in Pontypandy," I reminded her. "Hopefully, that's the last we'll hear of the Firedog."
"I doubt it," Ellie scoffed.
I braked Venus at an intersection, and I turned on the left indicator.
"Um… Where are you going, Sam?" Ellie wondered.
"I thought it might be best to take a drive around the town and check that everything's fine. There's nothing to do back at the station anyway."
"Good idea, Sam."
I drove around town for about twenty minutes, but seeing nothing unusual, I decided to head back to the fire station.
"Well, it looks like the streets of Pontypandy are safe, Sam," Ellie remarked as we drove past Joe's garage. "We might make that whole month without fires after all."
"You never know, Ellie. We might just do that."
Minutes later, we arrived back at the fire station, and I reversed Venus into the first appliance bay. We'd only just got out of her, when the alarms went off.
"Norman Price is being chased by a robotic dog that's on fire!" Station Officer Steele announced over the loudspeakers.
"The Firedog Two-Thousand!" Ellie and I exclaimed in unison.
"This could be a big fire," I told Ellie as I felt another adrenalin rush surge throughout my body. "Better take Jupiter!" Nodding, Ellie ran towards Jupiter. I pressed the 'talk' button on my radio. "Penny? We're going to need you!" My voice echoed over the loudspeakers. Then, I ran over to Jupiter as well.
Ellie and I were already inside Jupiter's cab and ready to go by the time Penny joined us. Ellie activated the lights, siren and roller door, and I hit the accelerator.
I quickly drove Jupiter the short distance to Joe's garage. After I'd parked Jupiter in the middle of the street, I jumped down from the cab and I quickly took in the situation. Firedog's tyres were on fire, and it had Norman backed into a corner near the stone wall. I could also tell from the smell that hung in the air that the small fire burning inside Joe's garage was being fuelled by petrol.
Penny connected one of the water hoses to Jupiter's outlet, and she handed the nozzle to me.
"Norman-man is doomed! Doomed! DOOMED!" Norman wailed dramatically.
I turned on the nozzle, dowsing Firedog with a full blast of water. The force bowled Firedog over and, after a couple of dying barks, the water killed the robot's electrics. Ellie ran over to Norman, and she escorted him to safety. Once they were out of the way, I sprayed Firedog again just to ensure I'd put out that fire completely.
"That takes care of Firedog!" I told my colleagues. "We need to be careful. There's petrol in there."
"Switching to sticky foam now, Sam," Penny told me as she connected the sticky foam hoses to Jupiter's outlet. I put down the water hose as Ellie handed me one of the sticky foam ones. She kept the other one for herself.
Together, Ellie and I turned on our hoses, dowsing the fire inside Joe's garage with sticky foam. It didn't take us long to extinguish the fire.
"Ah, the streets of Pontypandy are safe again!" I said, breathing a sigh of relief. Then, I turned to face Norman, who was standing behind Jupiter, and I lifted my visor. "Aren't they?"
Norman started at me sheepishly. "I'm sorry I put myself in danger, Fireman Sam, but I really thought I was invisible."
What the…?
"I'm sorry," Joe apologised, distracting me from my confused thoughts. "But I think that the blame must lie with my Firedog Two-Thousand."
Norman considered that thought for a moment. "So… This wasn't my fault, then?"
"Well, whoever's fault it was, I think you two should stop work on the Firedog Two-Thousand for the moment, and invent something less likely to burn down the whole of Pontypandy."
Radar barked as he came over to me. I chuckled before I knelt to pat him.
"Don't worry, Radar. I think your job is safe for a while." He happily licked my face in response, knocking my helmet to the side. "Ha! Stop that!"
"A fire in Pontypandy, and for once, it wasn't my fault, haha!" Norman exclaimed happily. "Maybe that's what my new superpower was? The boy who doesn't start fires!"
"Keep dreaming, Norman," I said as I stood up again. "I'll bet that the next fire we have will be caused by you."
"What, but… That's not fair!"
Hearing our conversation, Penny came over to us. "You know what, Sam? I think that's actually a pretty safe bet."
"It's a fifty-fifty chance," Arnold added.
"Okay, Norman," I said confidently as I folded my arms across my chest. "I'm willing to make a bet with you. If you don't start the next fire, I'll buy you a new skateboard. And if you do start the next fire, you have to spend a week washing all of the appliances at the fire station. Every single day."
Penny frowned. "Only a week?"
"I don't think we could cope with Norman for longer than that," I whispered to her.
"Oh! Right."
"So, do we have a deal then, Norman?"
Norman considered my offer for a moment. Then, he smirked and held out a hand. "It's a deal!"
I shook his hand, sealing our bet.
"I don't think you should have done that, Sam," Ellie said as the three of us climbed back into Jupiter's cab. "Making a bet with Norman? What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that we might get some more quiet time if Norman is enticed to stay out of trouble," I explained as I put on my seatbelt. Then, I turned off Jupiter's lights and siren before I started driving us back to the fire station.
Ellie was confused. "What do you mean?"
"Call it a bribe if you must, but Norman loves his skateboards. If he stands a good chance of getting a new one, he's going to be extra careful to ensure he does."
"Oh! I see… So, you think you're going to lose this bet?"
"Just between us, I hope I do. I don't mind buying Norman a new skateboard if I have to. I'm sure it'll be worth it. Especially if it means that Norman stays out of trouble for a while."
"Isn't there a Junior Cadet training day scheduled for next Saturday?" Penny asked. "You might actually win this bet, Sam."
I groaned inwardly. "Oh dear! Well, we'll just have to see what happens. Personally, I'd rather not be in charge of the Cadets next week."
"You'd better talk to Station Officer Steele then," Penny suggested. "See if he can assign someone else."
"Good idea, Penny. I'll do that. But, I suppose I'd better make sure I'm rostered on for duty that day anyway. Just in case."