Back in the 1970s in the U.K. the BBC often filled in time with short "public information films." They did a few in later years which were screened very occasionally, but in the 1970s it was very common to see these 30 to 90 second films.

Quite a few were related to electrical safety, and I stumbled upon these two which are available to view online:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/xtraspace/pif_a-l.html
Look for "Electricity Kills"

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/xtraspace/pif_m-z.html
Look for "Play Safe - Frisbee"

I remember the frisbee film well -- Quite a scary atmosphere from the very start, thanks to the menacing-sounding musical score.

The firefighters among you will also find some general fire-related films that might be of interest as well.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 01-08-2003).]

Paul,
I remember all of these Safety Warnings, when I was really young.
The Fire-Related topics, there are very true.
Escape plans in houses need to be practiced, as it is a totally different thing once the house is full of thick smoke.
One other thing Paul, we were shown a Video at school(with a HUGE VCR in 1984), with respect to Fire Safety, it depicted a hospital, in Australia, that burned down, because one of the workers, threw a Cigarette butt down the Laundry Chute, hoping that it would be empty at the bottom.
I have been to two Hospital Fires, one was in a 36 Bed Aged Care Facility, the other was in a 135 Bed Established Hospital,
3 Storeys High,burning at the bottom and working it's way up the lift shafts and Dumb-waiters.
Have never gone up and down 3 flights of stairs, so much.
But us Fire-Fighters, are built for this.
Thanks for the link, Paul, it brought back a few memories.

It's hard to believe anyone could be that careless. Was any action taken against him?

Paul,
This was a dramatised situation, shown to us kids during Fire Safety week at school.
Little did I know, at the time, in a few years time, I would be fighting the real thing!.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 01-13-2003).]

Ah.... I thought you were talking about an actual incident in that one.

We had a whole series of electrical public information films in 1970s which all ended with a huge circular arc between electrodes over the caption "Play Safe." (Anyone else from the U.K. remember these? They were narrated by Brian Wilde, otherwise known as Mr. Barraclough in the BBC show "Porridge.")

One film showed a group pushing a tall-masted boat onto lines, there was one with a boy hitting lines while flying a kite (big kite craze at the time!), and one showed a fisherman with a long rod/line. They're the only three of the series I remember off-hand Anyone remember any others in this series? I've tried looking for these on-line, but can't find them.

So you guys had a Kite craze too!.
Such simple fun, kites, if the wind doesn,t drag you along the ground, as happened to my friend at school.

We have had similar films in Sweden too. One problem is children climbing into substations. There was one real accident last year or the year before when two ten-year-olds dug under a fence into a substation. One died, the other lost his arms.

The same happened here in Britain, and the Frisbee craze no doubt increased the problem, hence the frisbee film referenced above. (Were there similar Kite/Frisbee crazes in Sweden/other countries in the 1970s, or were these a mainly Anglo-Saxon thing?)

As a youngster I lived across the street from a field with some 230kV lines running through. We were out there one day throwing a rock tied to a string over the lines.

We all thought it was really neat that the Fire Department trucks were racing our way, we thought we were going to get to see a fire. Well, they stopped where we were playing and read us the riot act about our play.

Guess I still don't know what the fuss was about. (hee hee)
Maybe that's why I still play with electriciy.