This 1916 silent film stars Charlie Chaplin as the fireman and Edna Purviance as the daughter to Lloyd Bacon. A young girl's father (Bacon) arranges with the local fire chief (Campbell) to have his house burn down so he could collect on the insurance money, in exchange he propose to the fire chief to marry his daughter. However, a real fire breaks out elsewhere in the town. The firemen ignore an inhabitant of the burning building as he tries to alert them to the fire, first by activating the fire alarm, then by phoning the fire station, and then by going to the fire station in person. Eventually, a fireman (Chaplin), alerts the fire chief and the fire company goes to put out the fire. Meanwhile the father set up a fire in the basement of his own house before realizing that his daughter is still inside in the upper floor. The fireman (Chaplin) who is in love with the daughter abandons the first house in fire to rush and heroically climbs the outside of the building to save her.