Leave flame-throwing to US, you be careful with fire!
Fire-prevention poster: a helmeted soldier in profile carries a backpack flame-thrower and sprays a burst of flame across a red field, under the headline 'Leave Flame-throwing to US'. The lower text turns the image into a safety message, 'YOU be careful with Fire!'. The technique is a fear-appeal built on the weapon's danger, with a wordplay on 'US'.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- National Fire Protection Association, with the Army Fire Prevention Program (Services of Supply); artist Ralph Fuller
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Home front, War and the military
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
National Fire Protection Association and U.S. Army Services of Supply. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1249 (NAID 514855).
Text on the object
Leave Flame-throwing to US- -YOU be careful with Fire ! [signature:] Ralph Fuller ★ Issued by the NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION ASSOCIATION, in cooperation with the ARMY FIRE PREVENTION PROGRAM sponsored by the Commanding General, Services of Supply ★ PRINTED IN U S A. COPYRIGHT 1942 NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION ASSOCIATION, BOSTON, MASS., U. S. A.
