That Time Chicago Fire’s Most Bizarre Rescue Ended Up Being… a Real-Life News Story
When you see those ridiculously specific rescues on Chicago Fire, you think to yourself, “Well, that only happens on TV.” And then, you watch the news…
Summary:
- Chicago Fire fans couldn’t believe a recent dangerous rescue actually happened in real life, not on the show.
- Chicago Fire often draws inspiration from real cases thanks to some members of its team being ex- or current firefighters.
- Other shows, especially police procedurals, also do that, turning past cases into new plots for their episodes.
No matter how great your favorite TV show is, you still keep in mind that it’s just a TV show. Chicago Fire has some of the most amazing, dangerous, and bizarre rescue operations, and it only seems logical to assume that those very specific circumstances are purely fictional — but most of that stuff has already happened.
Chicago Fire: When Life Imitates Art
Recently, a Chicago Fire fan shared a screenshot of a CBS news episode about a woman driving a semi-truck who went off the bridge and was left dangling in the air with the truck stuck mid-air. The shots from that rescue operation, they remarked, look like a new Chicago Fire promo, but it was a real-life incident in Louisville.
Most others agreed they’d sooner believe it was a still from the show than an actual rescue mission, praising the heroic rescue team for saving the woman’s life. But apparently, this wasn’t the only time where something that Taylor Kinney did on-screen had previously been done by real-life firefighters and rescue squads.
That’s largely thanks to the technical advisor, Steve Chikerotis, being a retired CFD Deputy District Chief with 36 years of experience, and Squad 3’s Tony Ferraris still being currently a real-life Chicago firefighter, explained Reddit user RN-EMT543. Thanks to their experience, many Chicago Fire cases were rooted in real rescues.
Chicago Fire’s Not the Only Show Doing That
Drawing inspiration from actual cases isn’t the sole privilege of firefighting shows, though: many other procedurals do that, too. This especially goes out to criminal dramas that often base their fictional cases on something that happened in real life.
“I used to do this with the show Criminal Minds. I’d be like, ‘Great episode, but so unrealistic! A BBQ stand-owning cannibal? What a joke.’ And then I saw the real guy… Makes me think most writers aren’t [that] creative; they just find outlandish yet true stories and use those,” Redditor CJaneNorman added.
We wouldn’t go as far as to assume writers uncreative, but it’s definitely interesting finding real-life versions of fictional events. How many Chicago Fire rescues have already happened, and we don’t even know the hero firefighters’ names?..
Source: Reddit