Chain Smoker

Spectators watch the fire department suppress a smoky fire in an old, empty, inner-city house on a cold winter night. Meanwhile, Sergeant Beth Nichols, a mid-20s firefighter, studies fire science in evening school toward a college degree. She has been promoted to the Fire Marshal's office as an investigator trainee. On the job, she finds that fire investigations are sloppily conducted while more of these empty inner city houses are torched. Soon she locks horns with the Fire Marshal and the head of the police department's detective unit. Her boyfriend is supportive until the investigation takes an ugly turn. Through self-learning and following established crime-investigation methods, she solves the vexing case of who is setting empty inner-city houses on fire, thus proving her elders wrong. Ultimately she is promoted to lieutenant fire investigator.