by GalFisk » Tue Nov 17, 2020 10:12 am
Sure thing.
The students boarding at Linbury Court preparatory school are told the afternoon will be spent on a fire drill. Jennings, to make up for not paying attention, is made to lead the drill. The instructions he's given are: you wake up in the middle of the light from the smell of smoke. You find that the strais have collapsed, and you're unable to locate any teachers. Even if it's pretend, you should act as if it was real.
Jennings then receive some other instructions. The nature of these instructions need to be determined. Something about these instructions causes the trouble.
Jennings call the fire department, and says: "There's a fire in the dormitory building! The stairs have collapsed, and we can't find Mr. Wilkins or any other teachers!". He thinks he is supposed to do this, see above.
The firefighters have been busy disassembling and polishing the piping on the truck, since the fire chef puts more importance on looks than function. Possibly out of boredom, since they almost never have an actual emergency to deal with. Of course they take the call seriously, and furiously assembles the truck, but the engine isn't in good condition at all. "We should've cleaned the carburettor on the fire truck, instead of polishing brass! We'll never get there in time to save the school children!" one laments as they cough and sputter towards the school. They do manage a quick field repair, but the journey takes more than half an hour.
Because of the nature of the second set of instructions, jennings is unaware of the fire rescue rope, and when he does become aware, he wants Mr. Wilkins to demonstrate it to them. Mr. Wilkins obliges (after some goading), but slips and gets stuck on the ivy covering the outside wall of the building.
"Mr Wilkins has hanged himself!" says a boy, when the principal arrives to check up on the situation. "up on the ivy," he continues.
"Somebody should call the fire department!" the principal says after some unsuccessful rescue attempts by himself and the boys.
"I've already done that," says Jennings, "they can be here any minute now!"
The firefighters arrive a few minutes later, and both them and Jennings are praised for their quick actions.