History Series / ChicagoFire

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* ShoutOut: To ''Film/{{Backdraft}}'' with occasional references to Firehouse 17.

** [[Music/{{Rush}} Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson]] cameo in the episode “2112” in which Mouch gets passes to a Rush concert.

* ArtisticLicense: That's a nice way of putting it. The show has so many absurdly unrealistic elements that firefighters tend to find it downright [[{{Narm}} narmy]]. Let's just go through some of the more egregious things they do:

** The show sometimes has a single resource handling a call that would, at minimum, require an Engine, a Truck, and a Chief Officer. The underground rescue that results in the deaths of several guys from [[spoiler: Squad 6]] is a shining example. In real life, there would've already been at least a half dozen additional rigs assigned to such a call, including paramedics and a battalion chief. An entire company also wouldn't go underground as they did without a designated Incident Commander, someone assigned to air monitoring, and other safety measures in place. See IdiotPlot.

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: The cast comes out of every fire looking none the worse for wear, not even sweating. Their hair is still perfect, despite having been under a helmet. Even their gear is clean. [[MarySue Dawson]] has to be the worst offender, her hair & makeup are never blemished.

* CousinOliver: Louie, an orphaned boy Dawson falls in love with and wishes to adopt. The kid is used as a plot device to add some conflict into the Casey-Dawson relationship and the writers quickly brought in [[AssPull Louie's father, a soldier who didn't know he had a son, and a large and loving extended family]] when it became clear that having a kid around didn't actually do much for the show. Through it all, the boy playing Louie just [[DullSurprise stood in the middle of scenes involving him just staring at everything with puppy dog eyes]].

* IdiotPlot: Multiple episodes include a conflict over something in the firehouse or on an incident that simply ''wouldn't ever happen'' in real life. The show applies ArtisticLicense quite liberally.
** Though hardly the only example, the incident between Boden and Deputy Chief Anderson over the extrication of a woman trapped in a car crushed under several sections of concrete is a good example. Literally ''nobody'' on either crew does anything that they should do, and a couple of guys holding a piece of webbing in their hands won't be able to secure a 4,000-pound pipe section against a gentle breeze.
** The sad story of Squad 6.

* ManlyTears: In "The People We Meet," Severide donates his bone marrow [[NightmareFuel without the proper anesthetic.]]. He toughs it out, but sobs when he is alone in his hospital room.

* RantInducingSlight: In "That Day," Herrmann brings Mouch with him to an interview about a promotion to lieutenant. After a mention about the responsibilities a lieutenant has, Herrmann starts up about the "white shirts" not protecting the "grunts" when needed. This quickly turns into Herrmann complaining about the amount of polyester in the dress uniforms, while Mouch sighs sadly.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: In "The F Is For", Herrmann is recruited to become a life couch after being seen in action as a compassionate bartender. But of course, he [[PoorCommunicationKills royally screws it up]] ''twice'' in the same episode: He gives advice to a young man nervous about his girlfriend moving in with him, which later blows up in his face when the guy angrily storms in and tells Herrmann that the two have broken up. Meanwhile, he unwittingly encourages Lily to speak to her sister and move to Hawaii, which Otis isn't exactly thrilled about either.

* AdultFear: Severide's sister (who he'd recently discovered and had become something more akin to a surrogate father too) is kidnapped and his overwhelming worry spreads across several episodes as well as Series/ChicagoPD.

** Cruz's "Slamigan" tool, touted as a brilliant invention, takes a highly-versatile Halligan Bar and [[CripplingOverspecialization removes its ability to do all but a single function]] (prying with the adze). To make it worse, a Halligan will most often be used to pry with the forks, which Cruz's modification renders useless, rather than the adze. Not that great of an idea after all. Sure enough, when he is finally shown using it to force a door, [[RealityEnsues it doesn’t work]].

It quickly proved to be a solid show and, within the span of four years, had ''three'' spin offs: ''Series/ChicagoPD'' (debuted in 2014), ''Series/ChicagoMed'' (debuted in 2015), and ''Series/ChicagoJustice'' (debuted and cancelled in 2017).

** The show started off with Dawson studying to become a MD. Dawson later gives up the idea of medical school and switches to wanting to become a firefighter (in part because she has a better chance of achieving the latter).

** In "Leaving The Station" Otis does a prank against two visiting Canadian firefighters. Boden chews him out for it, but the Canadians just pays him back with just repeating the prank back on him.
** Most of the station is amused by Jones' "cake penis" in "A Rocket Blasting Off", although they're not so sure about how Hermann's wife would react. [[spoiler:She finds it hilariously appropriate]].
* AdultFear: Severide's sister (who he'd recently discovered and had become something more akin to a surrogate father to) is kidnapped and his overwhelming worry spreads across several episodes as well as Series/ChicagoPD.
* AirVentPassageway: "When Tortoises Fly" averts this when a Peeping Tom is trapped in the ventilation system at a local gym. He tries to escape from the roof, but is tackled by Severide.

** There is a separate ready area, just off the side of the garage, where the firefighters store their personal bunker gear and SCBA masks when they're not on duty. The duty watch keep their gear next to the trucks while on call so they can respond faster.

** Mills early attempts to join the rescue squad rubbed the firefighters on Truck Company 81 the wrong way as he was still a candidate and hadn't even passed his probation period to becoming a fully-qualified firefighter yet.

* ArtisticLicense: That's a nice way of putting it. The show has so many absurdly-unrealistic elements that firefighters tend to find it downright [[{{Narm}} narmy]]. Let's just go through some of the more egregious things they do:
** The firefighters wear custom SCBA masks to allow as much of the actors' faces as possible be visible. The orientation of the air delivery system would actually hinder mobility if used in a real-world situation. They don and doff them like scuba gear, always leaving the regulator connected to the mask, which is put on and taken off separately with the regulator disconnected. It's also clear that they're not actually sealed or flowing any air, because the masks never fog up.
** Actual structure fire suppression tactics are not something you will see in this show. Truck-81 is always conducting a primary search, and never does ventilation, salvage, elevated master streams, or any other Truck function. Squad-3 and Truck-81 regularly show up at structure fires without an Engine (the Engine has a pump and is primarily responsible for actually putting the fire out, although they can perform Truck roles if necessary), even though Engine-51 is clearly visible in the apparatus bay right before they got the call. For that matter, Engine-51 is only occasionally mentioned and almost never seen.

** The arson investigations depicted could be compiled into a video titled "How Not To Investigate A Fire." Hardly any documentation is made of evidence to preserve the chain of custody (something that even police are taught for fire scenes), personnel enter the scene without a warrant after the incident has been concluded and the scene is no longer under Chicago Fire Department control (that's legally considered breaking and entering, as it's now a police department matter)...
** The less said about the show's depiction of fire, the better. Most structure fires generally don't produce much flame that is visible from the outside unless there's either a lot of flammable material inside the building, it burns through the roof or the building collapses (there's plenty of flames, just not where you can see them). They produce ''a lot'' more smoke than you see in the show, usually of the dark-black variety. That smoke also fills the inside of the building to the point that you usually can't see across the room, and zero-visibility is not unusual. While the strangely-smokeless rooms on fire can be chalked up to AcceptableBreaksFromReality to show the audience what's happening, [[ConvectionSchmonvection the cast standing right next to open flames without even crouching]] (in a real fire, firefighters crawl to stay below the heat; stand up, and you're gonna be burned to death, gear or no gear[[note]] NFPA standards require turnout gear to protect the wearer from an ambient temperature of 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and current engineering can't do much better than that anyway. A working structure fire can easily heat the atmosphere inside to 800 degrees--''at waist-height''. Firefighters consider it great if it's actually cool enough inside for them to work from their knees. Often they have to snake-crawl[[/note]]), not so much.

** The Springfield Fire Commissioner comes to Chicago and offers Kelly a job. Only problem, Springfield, Illinois doesn't have a Fire Commissioner. Additionally, fire departments, being low-level government agencies, don't make corporate-style headhunting salary offers. Severide would get paid the Battalion Chief's salary on the Springfield FD's pay scale.

** The show sometimes has a single resource handling a call that would, at minimum, require an Engine, a Truck, and a Chief Officer. The underground rescue that results in the deaths of several guys from [[spoiler: Squad 6]] is a shining example. In real life, there would've already been at least a half dozen additional rigs assigned to such a call, including paramedics and a battalion chief. An entire company also wouldn't go underground like they did without a designated Incident Commander, someone assigned to air monitoring, and other safety measures in place. See IdiotPlot.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: In "A Chicago Welcome," an old rival of Battalion Chief Wallace Boden, Jerry Gorsch, returns and offers new equipment for the unit as a peace offering, starting with a fancy new firetruck. Boden is more than willing to let bygones be bygones, especially when Gorsch offers to get new turnout gear for everyone so the crew can change out their gear on duty so they can work in healthier conditions such as reducing their exposure to carcinogenic material while on calls since they can have their gear cleaned sooner and more often. However, a comrade is suspicious when he learns that their usual supplier has not received any new orders, while learning that Gorsch has contacted a new supplier who is offering the same equipment for 25% cheaper. He has a friend investigate, and they find that not only has the new supplier's product never been tested for safety performance, but Gorsch has known the seller of it for years. They alert Boden, and then they tell the city government of their suspicions, which leads to uncovering that Gorsch arranged big money kickbacks for the seller for equipment they can't trust to properly protect them. As such, Gorsch is promptly fired and Boden and company get the thanks of the Mayor's office for avoiding a serious corruption scandal that could have jeopardised Fire Department personnel.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: The cast come out of every fire looking none the worse for wear, not even sweating. Their hair is still perfect, despite having been under a helmet. Even their gear is clean. [[MarySue Dawson]] has to be the worst offender, her hair & makeup are never blemished.
** Horribly averted with Jimmy in "A Real Wake-Up Call", who leaves the show, [[spoiler:with half his handsome face severely and permanently disfigured, and losing an eye, when it's literally burnt off in a car explosion]].

** The organ transport cooler in "A Dark Day." [[spoiler:And then subverted horribly...]]
** Late in Season 1, it's revealed that Mouch was once a sperm donor. This is revisited in Season 3, when his donor info is leaked and his biological child comes looking for him.

* CareerEndingInjury: Vargas gets put on long term disability in "It Ain't Easy".

* CrapsackWorld: Similar to how ''Series/ChicagoPD'' isn't unwilling to show the grittier parts of the city, ''Fire'' seems to take place in some kind of alternate reality Chicago, where the Chicago Fire Department deals with big disasters on a semi-regular basis. Between these disasters, basically every main character has gone through horrible emotional and/or physical trauma.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Done in "Short and Fat," twice humorously and once seriously. When Chili and Jimmy are a minute late to a meeting, Peterson puts them on garbage duty for a week. When Peterson catches them coming out of the same [[ShowerOfLove shower stall]], Peterson ups that to a month. At the end of the episode, when Hermann compares new hire Freddy to Molly's "short and fat" highball glasses, Freddy [[spoiler:stabs him in the side and leaves him bleeding out in the kitchen.]]

** David Arata in "No Regrets" is a borderline case. He barks orders and seems callous, but given that he's helping run a triage he's also practical. He also refuses to evacuate when people still need help, and has nothing but praise for the actions of Shay and Dawson.

** Duffy, a friend of Severide and Gabby's boss in the arson department, jumps off a bridge with a weight attached. He felt guilty over helping a real estate mogul cover up his connection to a string of arson. Severide jumps in the river after him and saves him.
** The owner of the warehouse that's destroyed with numerous fatalities in "Deathtrap." He had no malicious or irresponsible intent, and wasn’t fully aware of what was going on in the building. While being questioned at the firehouse, he shoots himself in the bathroom. Everyone is stunned.

* TheEeyore: [=McAuley=], a paramedic who briefly partners with Dawson in season 2, delights in seeing the downside of everything, including speculating that a guy hanging from a roof will wind up splattered on the pavement, and a guy rescued from a trash compactor is a MRSA infection waiting to happen.

** In ''What Happened to Courtney'', Severide follows up on an unsolved search and rescue where they {{never found the body}} when a call takes them to a chimney with a charred skeleton next to a unique necklace. Said necklace belonged to the titular Courtney, whose body was later confirmed through dental records. When Courtney's uncle David visits, he accuses his sister of neglect and snapping her neck, a detail that was never publicized. A fight between Severide and David ensues, and the latter in hauled away in cuffs.

** Though hardly the only example, the incident between Boden and Deputy Chief Anderson over the extrication of a woman trapped in a car crushed under several sections of concrete is a good example. Literally ''nobody'' on either crew does anything that they should do, and a couple of guys with holding piece of webbing in their hands won't be able to secure a 4,000-pound pipe section against a gentle breeze.

** Two little girls appear in "A Dark Day", Zoe is [[Series/ChicagoPD Burgess']] niece, Imogene is the younger sister of the new pediatrician. The episode ends with both of them looking about to die. ''[[Series/ChicagoPD Chicago PD]]'' concludes it [[spoiler:Imogene dies, but her liver is then given to Zoe saving her life.]]

* LastNameBasis: While their full names are used with varying degrees of frequency, the people manning Firehouse 51 generally refer to each other by surnames, nicknames or, in the case of people like Casey, Severide and Boden, their rank.

* MomentKiller: The firehouse's alarm is programmed to go off every time one of the characters wants to avoid a serious conversation, or have one. Or is in the process of making out with someone. Or is trying to eat Thanksgiving dinner (''twice!'')...

* {{Nepotism}}: Jones' father is a high ranking member of the CFD, and used some leverage to make sure she got through the academy. Played with, in that one she's had some experience as a fire fighter he's now trying to use his leverage to get her assigned to a desk job out of danger. [[spoiler: [[DrivenToSuicide It backfires]] ''[[DrivenToSuicide horribly]]'']].

** Jones joined the house in Season 2 and immediately angered Truck 81 by attempting to be one of the guys from the get go without having earned the right to do so. She is also a terrible cook which does nothing to help her. She begins loosening up and Hermann, at least, starts to warm up to her, but the revelation that her father is using his influence to end her career before it starts drives her to suicide.

* NoOSHACompliance: One episode as an Amazon-like distribution warehouse floor manager banning bathroom breaks when the staff are apparently being too slow in their quotas compared to the new robots. Of course, nature called for one worker, and he was so desperate and angry that he urinated on one of the robots. That damaged the robot, which went haywire and rammed into the shelving and caused a major collapse on some workers. The firefighters come to the rescue and then investigate what happened. When they discover the manager is at fault (and trying to keep a low profile at that moment), they firmly order him to stay where he is since he is going to have a long talk with OSHA about this blatant workplace reg violation.

** Casey and Severide command their own coempanies but are subordinate to Boden within the battalion. Casey very occasionally takes command if Boden is absent on short notice, but a relief chief is the preferred rout. The season 2 finale explicitly shows another chief coming in to take temporary command because Boden has the day off. Another relief chief arrives when Boden takes time off to take care of his infant son in Season 3.

** [[spoiler: Peter Mills]] is given a proper send off in Season 3. He decides that being near his family is worth more than the thrill of being a firefighter so he moves to North Carolina.

** Tony could count as a regular example of this, seeing as Anthony Ferraris is and actual Firefighter for Squad 2 in real life.

* SensitivityTraining: In "Retaliation Hit." As per usual for this trope, the squad treat it with annoyance. Somewhat unusually the one giving the presentation is aware of the tedium of it, and comes as someone merely doing his job. He also decides ''not'' to report Hadley's actions, leaving Boden to handle it.

* TemptingFate: In episode 3 Mills comes in near the end of the shift and sees Herrman and Mouch hanging out on the couch:

* UglyGuyHotWife: [=McAuley=], to the shock of Truck 81, has a much younger and incredibly beautiful wife. Cruz can't wrap his head around how someone like [=McAuley=], who is middle-aged, plain looking, and gloomy, could attract someone so hot.
* UnintentionalFinalMessage: The squad responds to an accident between a street racer and a postal vehicle. Afterwards, Mouch checks his gear to discover a letter from the postal vehicle got stuck to his boot and sets out to deliver it. After the post office declines to help him, Ritter finds a way to determine the address. Mouch delivers it and discovers it was sent by a soldier to his wife shortly before he was killed in action. (Thus making the post office's ambivalence worse.)

* YankTheDogsChain: In "A Dark Day," a little girl needs a new liver transplant. Dr. Arata [[ChekhovsGun remembers an organ transplant cooler]] he saw earlier, it's the right blood type, and is a liver, [[spoiler: but the liver is damaged and unusable. The episode ends with the implication the girl will die.]]

It quickly proved to be a solid show and, within the space of four years, has ''three'' spin offs: ''Series/ChicagoPD'' (debuted in 2014), ''Series/ChicagoMed'' (debuted in 2015), and ''Series/ChicagoJustice'' (debuted and cancelled in 2017).

* InfantImmortality: Both averted and played straight as the plot demands.
** [[spoiler: Very horribly averted with Ernie.]] Averted in [[{{Foreshadowing}} A Coffin]] [[{{Tearjerker}} That Small]].

** Hermann nearly dies while saving a baby, but the kid eventually dies from having been exposed to the fire too long.

* SpanishPrisoner: In one episode, [[spoiler: Mouch]] tells a story about falling for the Russian Bride variant. He's still angry about it.

** Clarke transferred out of the house with little fanfare, which offended Hermann because he was the only one who got remotely close to the man. [[TheBusCameBack The bus briefly comes back]] to show that Clarke had been promoted to lieutenant of another company.[[labelnote:*]]Jeff Hephner has said he's happy to return, but it probably won't be full-time.[[/labelnote]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: That's quite obviously a drawing of a penis on the cake in "A Rocket Blasting Off." The things said about it don't help:
-->'''Shay:''' First time I've ever had that in my mouth.
-->'''Dawson:''' Oh yeah? How is it?
-->'''Shay:''' Eh.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw:
** Cruz's union representative not being permitted to participate in an interview that results in disciplinary action would have the following real-life result: Cruz sues the City of Chicago and becomes a millionaire by the end of the day.
** ''Nobody'' has the authority to forbid a Battalion Chief from closing the door of his own office. Chief Boden would be entirely within his rights to tell Assistant Deputy Commissioner Gorsch to piss up a rope.
** Unless they've got a parole officer who's a real asshole, a parolee with an ankle monitor would not receive a violation for being transported to an emergency room with a major injury.

** When any kind of technical rescue comes up, realism takes a backseat to RuleOfCool. Things like stabilization struts are improperly placed, objects are lifted without cribbing or other safety measures in place, and on the rare occasion when any of this is brought up, it gets weakly handwaved with "There's no time" (pro tip: that doesn't fly in real life).
** ArtisticLicenseMedicine is in full effect. A complete list of medical errors, incorrectly-performed procedures, etc. by Dawson and the other paramedics would take a ''long'' page of its own.
*** The paramedics frequently do things that would at least get them terminated and their medic certifications revoked. Basic C-spine immobilization for trauma patients ''never'' happens. A medic has committed gross insubordination (the only thing that can and will get you fired ''on the spot'') at least twice so far. Anyone with any kind of emergency medical certification would lose both their certification and their job and would face malpractice lawsuits and possibly jail time if they perform a procedure outside of their legal scope of practice, regardless of whether they know how to do it or not (sorry, Dawson).
*** As of the 2017 season, they are finally attempting (poorly) to put patients who need it in C-spine stabilization.
*** Numerous scenes feature patients being intubated, but the endotracheal tubes are very clearly not inserted past the patient's teeth. This one is obviously justified from a production standpoint: a conscious individual will not be able to tolerate a plastic pipe being inserted through their vocal cords (gag reflex). Yet it would be more practical to just snip an ET tube short so that it would appear to be properly placed.

** Thermal imaging cameras do not work that way. Period. They don't make noise. They don't see through walls. In fact, they can't see through a transparent glass window. They measure differences in heat to form an image, so a hot spot in a wall, for instance, will show up brighter. They do have a limited ability to see through smoke, provided the room isn't too hot. Oh, and the ''cheap'' ones cost about $10,000, so nobody gets to take them home for personal use.
*** They’re also colloquially called "[=TICs=]," not "thermal cameras."

** ArtisticLicenseLaw: Cruz's union representative not being permitted to participate in an interview that results in disciplinary action would have the following real-life result: Cruz sues the City of Chicago and becomes a millionaire by the end of the day.