"Fire-Fighting Smurfs" is an episode that appeared in Season 6 of the Smurfs cartoon show.
Characters
- Snappy Smurfling
- Papa Smurf
- Gargamel
- Scruple
- Azrael
- Nat Smurfling
- Sassette Smurfling
- Smurfette
- Puppy
- Hefty Smurf
- Handy Smurf
- Lazy Smurf
- Clumsy Smurf
- Greedy Smurf
- Grouchy Smurf
- Vanity Smurf
- Tailor Smurf
- Brainy Smurf
- Farmer Smurf
- Poet Smurf
- Feathers
- Animals
- Grandpa Smurf (Does not speak)
- Harmony Smurf (Does not speak)
- Slouchy Smurfling (Does not speak)
- Unnamed Smurfs
Synopsis
Snappy unintentionally causes a forest fire.
Plot Summary
Greedy and the Smurflings are out in the forest roasting smurfmallows, with Greedy test-tasting each one to see how well they are cooked... except for Snappy's, who ends up having his being taste-tested by Puppy. Of course, Puppy gets a little too hungry for smurfmallows and decides to have the whole basket full of them to eat, which means that their smurfmallow roasting session is over. Smurfette comes along to tell the Smurflings that they should put out the fire and clean up after themselves before they return to the village. Snappy is given the task of filling up the bucket with water from the river so they can put out the fire. After collecting the trash, Nat and Sassette stuff the bag into a hole in the tree, saying that it will save them some time carrying it back. Snappy pours water unto the campfire, but Smurfette wants him to get another bucket to make sure that the fire is extinguished.
While Snappy gets the next bucket, Nat and Sassette see that their bag of trash has been pushed out of the hole by an owl that lives in the tree. Smurfette scolds the two Smurflings, telling them no short cuts. As the group of Smurfs start off in their return to the village, Snappy tries to get the bucket of water over to the smoldering campfire but ends up stumbling and spilling the water. Not liking having to go back to the river for another bucket, Snappy reasons that the campfire looks pretty much extinguished and joins up with his fellow Smurfs, telling Smurfette that the job is done. However, the wind carries two smoldering bits of embers over to the tree where a fire starts, causing the owl to flee its nest. Snappy sees smoke arising from the place they have left and starts to worry, but when Sassette asks what's wrong, Snappy denies that there is anything wrong.
Back in the village at night, Snappy couldn't get any sleep, and the noise he's making is disrupting his fellow Smurflings' sleep. Sassette tells Snappy that because of his noisemaking, it's now already morning. But Nat tells them that it's only 2:00 AM, which leaves them wondering where the big glow in the forest is coming from. Their answer comes from Papa Smurf, who summons the whole village to warn them of a forest fire that's coming their way. He has Hefty lead a team that will create a firebreak and Handy lead another team to get the fire engine ready. Snappy could only stand around and say that this is terrible, but his fellow Smurflings get him to snap out of it and take action.
Out in the forest, the fire has caused the animals to either flee their homes or to find shelter, with Puppy trying to get himself out of harm's way. Papa Smurf tells his little Smurfs to extend the firebreak all the way to the River Smurf, which they try hard to work on cutting down as many trees as possible. The job is difficult, and Lazy sleeping on the other end of the saw that he and Clumsy are using to cut a tree down with doesn't make things any easier. Papa Smurf sees Snappy working furiously to cut down as many trees as he can and warns him to be careful with that axe. Snappy asks if they will be able to stop the fire, and Papa Smurf says they can only hope.
Meanwhile, in Gargamel's castle, the evil wizard is preparing to go into the forest to collect ingredients for his experiments and leaves Scruple behind to do the cleaning of his laboratory. Scruple doesn't like that he has to do all the dirty work of his master and expresses his concerns, but Gargamel doesn't care to listen to his sniveling apprentice and heads off, paying little attention to where he's going as he's reading off his list until a fiery ember falls on the page, burning it up. Gargamel looks and sees that there's a forest fire in progress, and when another ember falls on the seat of his robe, he quickly runs back into his house and goes into the tub Scruple has been using to extinguish it, only to find out after an explosion that that was where Scruple has dumped his potions into. Soon with the fire spreading, Gargamel and Scruple are working their hardest to hose down the hovel to keep it from going up in flames.
The firebreak created by the Smurfs is finished, which only leaves Handy and his fire brigade team to hose down the area with as much water as they could to stop the fire from spreading. Snappy is on his hands and knees praying that this is where the fire will end, but unfortunately the wind picks up and spreads the fire beyond the firebreak, which means that the village will soon be in danger. Papa Smurf realizes that there is one thing left to do: he takes a cloud-seeding formula with him and flies over the forest with Feathers carrying him, hoping he can create a rain cloud powerful and wide enough to blanket the forest with rain. As Papa Smurf tries in his initial attempt to spray the cloud over the forest, the wind makes Feathers fight to stay airborne, causing Papa Smurf to drop off her back. Feathers swoops in to save Papa Smurf before he plummets into the fiery forest, and then the village leader has the crane circle over the entire area while he sprays the cloud with his formula. The cloud turns dark, and soon rain falls and drenches the forest, quenching the fire and making the Smurfs cheer that the worst is now over. Of course, Papa Smurf and Feathers do come in for a rough landing when a lightning bolt strikes the crane's behind, sending them plummeting into a bush.
After the fire has ended and Papa Smurf's leg has been wrapped in a bandage, the Smurfs look at the damage the fire has caused in the forest and wonder what could have caused it. Greedy says he already knows who's responsible, that it was the work of careless humans. Smurfette explains to Snappy that this is the reason she wanted the Smurflings to be careful when it comes to putting out campfires. But then their concerns turn to Puppy, who arrives looking badly hurt from the fire. Papa Smurf gives Nat a jar of smelling salts to revive Puppy, and then Snappy volunteers to go into Papa Smurf's laboratory to get the ointment and bandages. As he races back to the village to get the first aid equipment, Snappy says that the whole thing is all his fault. Upon returning, Papa Smurf tells the young Smurfling that there are other animals who are badly hurt from the fire and that they will need to make an animal shelter to help them recover, which Nat will be in charge of. Sassette feels angry at the human responsible for this fire, and Hefty tells Sassette what he hopes to do once they find that human, with Snappy disguising his guilt as best as he could, knowing that he was responsible.
Soon the animal shelter is up and running, with the Smurfs doing their best to help the wounded animals recuperate from the injuries they sustained from the fire. Hefty has an exercise machine to help the deer keep themselves in shape, and Grandpa Smurf has a nutcracker attached to his rocking chair to help feed the squirrels. Vanity is overseeing Puppy's recovery, Smurfette is dusting off the owls, and Tailor has made some fashionable slings for the gophers. Nat wonders about the carrot dispenser being used to help feed the rabbits, and he and Papa Smurf see that Greedy who was in charge of filling the dispenser got a little too hungry in his job. However, Nat mentions that of all the Smurfs doing their part, Snappy is the hardest worker of all. In fact, he's been working so hard with taking care of the animals and helping Farmer replant the forest with new trees, he falls asleep during dinner. Smurfette wakes him up and tells him that it's time for dessert, which Snappy thinks that he should skip out on just to see how the animals are doing, but he couldn't escape the attention he was getting as a special cake and a special award was given to both him and Nat for the care they've shown in the recovery process.
Eventually, the burden of Snappy's guilt becomes too heavy for the little Smurfling to bear, and so he runs off to the Smurf River Bridge to throw his medal into the river, feeling that he truly doesn't deserve the honor that was bestowed upon him. As Snappy is bawling his eyes out, Gargamel and Scruple are out in the forest looking for Smurfs, hoping to find one that has been burned to a crisp. Scruple notices through a telescope that the Smurfs have built an animal shelter, which gives the evil wizard an idea: he and his pupil will disguise themselves as wounded bears in the hopes that the Smurfs will take them in to be treated so that they can treat themselves to a village full of captured Smurfs. Scruple says that only a complete moron would fall for them looking like wounded animals, but no sooner does he say that does Clumsy stumble into them and realizes that they are also in need of care.
The next day, as Papa Smurf sends Snappy into the forest with a special plant growth formula that would help the forest recover from the fire, Hefty notices from the water he and another Smurf gathered from the river to fill the watering trough that they picked up Snappy's medal. Papa Smurf is beginning to realize from this that all of Snappy's hard work and change of behavior is covering up some secret shame and goes out into the forest to have a talk with the Smurfling. In the meantime, Clumsy brings home the fake wounded animals, which make the other Smurfs see how terrible they look, with Smurfette noticing that one of them is wearing socks. But before they could react, the animals unmask themselves, revealing them to be Gargamel and Scruple, and soon the Smurfs become their captives.
Papa Smurf and Snappy return home to find that the Smurfs tending the animal shelter have all been taken, and that Puppy is now trapped inside his doghouse, unable to escape. Snappy wonders who could have done this, and suddenly gets his answer from a couple of owls carrying a couple of bear costumes, indicating that Gargamel and Scruple were behind this. As Snappy now wonders how the two of them can rescue the Smurfs now, Gargamel is already preparing to baste some Smurfs on skewers and even offers to let Scruple have a taste, which he refuses, saying that blue food doesn't agree with him. Soon Gargamel gets a visit from Snappy, who challenges the wizard to follow him outside, where he dives into a hole in a tree and waits for Gargamel to try reaching in for him. Then Gargamel gets his head paddled by a couple of beavers and then kicked in the rear by a deer. With Scruple being ambushed by a beaver, Papa Smurf and Snappy go inside the castle to rescue the captured Smurfs while Puppy deals with Azrael. Gargamel tries to cut off their escape, but a flock of owls come down and harass the evil wizard, sending him running away and cursing the Smurfs.
After the Smurfs have escaped, Snappy confesses to everyone that the whole thing was all his fault, and he doesn't blame anyone if they don't forgive him. Hefty tells Snappy that it takes a really big Smurf to admit his faults, and Smurfette says that it wouldn't be smurfy to not forgive him. But then everybody's attention is turned to the young forest trees suddenly sprouting up due to Papa Smurf's plant growth formula, which means that the forest will be back to normal soon. An owl drops Snappy's medal on the young Smurfling, with Papa Smurf saying that he might want it back, and this time Snappy accepts the honor without reservation as a couple of rabbits snuggle him to give him their thanks.
Trivia
- This episode was done before Wild Smurf and Chitter were introduced in Season 7's Smurf On The Wild Side. It could have been possible Wild would have been found in this episode and Chitter would have been one of the injured animals since the fire devastated a lot of the forest. However, it's also possible Wild and Chitter lived in an area of the forest unaffected by the fire.
- According to an Emmy consideration ad from 1987, fire departments across the country requested copies of this episode due to its theme of fire safety.
- This episode is similar to the Arthur episode "April 9th".
- Tailor wears Vanity's flower on his firefighter hat.