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Is Chicago Fire Based on Real Life? A Look at The Facts and Fiction of Firehouse 51
Between the high-octane action and gripping rescues, how much of Chicago Fire is realistic to Windy City firefighting?
The One Chicago series are an action-packed thrill ride centered around the first responders who save lives every day in the Windy City. As Chicago Fire maintains its chokehold as the flagship series with 13 seasons and counting, many may wonder — how much of the show is based on real life?
Series creator Dick Wolf is famed for his ripped-from-the-headlines tactics in the Law & Order writers' room, but does Chicago Fire follow the same ideology? While Law & Order occasionally plucks details from true stories to give the detectives some fuel, the One Chicago series tends to focus on the day-to-day realities of first responders, allowing the series to get pretty creative when giving Firehouse 51 a blazing inferno to extinguish. A Chief officiating a firefighter wedding? Very realistic. Two firefighters jumping off a 4-story building to escape a blazing explosion? It's a less likely story.
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So, are any episodes of Chicago Fire based on true stories? Is Firehouse 51 an actual firehouse that fans could visit? Let's take a look inside the facts and fiction of Chicago Fire.
Is Chicago Fire based on real life?
Simply put, no.
While the action-packed nature of a thriller like Chicago Fire prevents episodes from being based on actual rescue calls, the series pays homage to real-life Windy City firefighters in several ways.
Dushone Roman — Californian firefighter and star of Wolf's nonfiction series L.A. Fire & Rescue — weighed in on how Chicago Fire mirrors reality and which details veer toward fiction. When considering which details of Chicago Fire are the most realistic to his daily grind, Roman told TV Insider that the show's workplace relationships between calls are deeply relatable.
"I love the back-and-forth banter. That's exactly what we do in the fire services. Watching Chicago Fire brings back memories of what we do," Roman explained. "They get things right for the most part, but in the medical scenes, there's funny EMS stuff, say, where oxygen on people's face are placed on wrong."
Aside from being directly inspired by the first responders of the Chicago Fire Department, Chicago Fire has also worked with local firefighter unions to include actual firefighters as extras in rescue scenes. One of those extras turned his Chicago Fire guest appearance into a bona fide role on the show — fan favorite Anthony Ferraris.
A Chicago Fire cast member is a real-life firefighter
Real-life Chicago firefighter Tony Ferraris has been a member of the Firehouse 51 family since Season 3 of Chicago Fire after guest appearing as an extra in a few early episodes.
"On the first day of filming, the crew realized nobody in the cast was able to drive squad," Ferraris recounted in a 2020 Wolf Entertainment interview. "[Retired CFD Deputy District Chief] Steve Chikerotis, the show's technical advisor, who I've known for years, asked me if I would drive. I said sure, and that's pretty much how it all went down. I started out as an extra, and then Derek Haas approached me around episode five or six and asked me to read for him, and then they started writing me in."
Aside from jumping behind the wheel and cracking jokes at lunch with the squad, Ferraris has also given the Chicago Fire production team some perspective into the realities of the gig.
"I tell [showrunners] if we have a crazy call or things we say, but they ask me a lot, too," Ferraris explained. "In the beginning, [former showrunner] Derek Haas would come to the firehouse and ride with me when we were working... They'll ask me things like, 'Hey, if you're forcing this door open, how would you do it?' But our job, fighting fires, is stranger than fiction."
RELATED: Did You Know This Chicago Fire Star Is a Real-Life Firefighter?
When asked how accurate Chicago Fire is to depicting life in a firehouse, Ferraris echoed Roman's sentiment about the camaraderie of the gig mirroring reality.
Ferraris continued, "We have a very dangerous job, and we're very tight when that bell rings. But when we're at the firehouse, we're busting on each other and giving each other a hard time. We golf together; we do a lot of things together. I think it translates onto the screen and it's pretty realistic of life at work. When you live with somebody for 24 hours, you'll learn a lot about them, and you do that for 88 days a year. It's your second family."
Some Firehouse 51 shots are filmed at a functioning Chicago firehouse
Chicago Fire may not stick to any true stories when firefighters jump on the truck, but the bonds formed inside the firehouse have roots in reality. Not only are the relationships genuine to the day-to-day inside a fire station, but those bonds have formed around an actual operating firehouse. That's right — many exterior shots of the station are filmed at the functioning Engine 18 station on S. Blue Island Avenue on the West Side of Chicago. The interior shots of Firehouse 51 are filmed at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios but are heavily inspired by Engine 18's layout.
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With over a decade of new friends, budding romances, and steel-tight allegiances, the interwoven lives of the first responders have become the beating heart of Chicago Fire. As the most true-to-life detail of Chicago Fire, it's no wonder these bonds forged in fire remain the most beloved aspect of the NBC nail-biter.
Watch Chicago Fire on Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.
