City on Fire

City on Fire is a 1979 disaster action film directed by Alvin Rakoff, written by Jack Hill, Dave Lewis and Celine La Freniere, and stars Barry Newman, Susan Clark, Shelley Winters, Leslie Nielsen, James Franciscus, Ava Gardner and Henry Fonda. The film's plot revolves around a disgruntled ex-employee who sabotages an oil refinery, setting off a blaze that engulfs an entire city. People try to either fight the fire or flee as it spreads throughout the city. The film was shot in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, although the name of the city is not mentioned in the film. Plot In an unnamed U.S. city, the corrupt mayor William Dudley has allowed an oil refinery to be built right in the center of town, far from any river, lake or reservoir. On one typically hot summer day, Herman Stover, a dangerously disturbed employee at the refinery, has been denied an expected promotion, and in addition, finds himself fired after refusing a departmental transfer. He then decides to take his revenge against the works by opening the valves to the storage vats and their interconnecting pipes, flooding the area and sewers with gasoline and chemicals. It doesn't take long for this act of petty vandalism to start a fire, which starts a chain reaction that causes massive explosions at the refinery, destroying it and spreading a mushroom cloud of flame that soon engulfs the entire metropolis. The drama focuses on a newly built hospital that, like the refinery and all civic buildings that went up during the mayor's crooked administration, is shoddily built and poorly equipped. There, head doctor Frank Whitman and his staff treat thousands of casualties from the fire, while the city fire chief Risley keeps in constant contact with the fire companies fighting a losing battle against the fires. Maggie Grayson, an alcoholic reporter, sees it as her chance to make it nationwide with her coverage of the story of the "city on fire".