There Goes a Fire Truck [VHS]
This excellent installment in Dave Hood'sThere Goes a...series  of children's videos finds "Firefighter Dave" learning the ins and outs of a real firefighter's life. Taking the viewer on an extensive tour of various kinds of firetrucks (the ones with ladders, the ones that store everything from traffic cones to oxygen tanks), Hood also introduces us to a few of the heroic folks who risk their lives on the job. We see the rapid process by which firefighters (male and female, incidentally) get from their comfortable bunks in the station house into their protective gear, then hit the road and fight those raging flames. (We also learn that when these public servants aren't out saving lives and property, they're doing mundane, home-like chores at the station.) The result is a deservingly noble portrait of the firefighting profession. This is one of the liveliest of theThere Goes a...productions, and the balance of verbal instruction against the sheer rush of seeing firetrucks on the move is perfect.--Tom Keogh