“Chicago Fire” fans have become accustomed to the intense rescues our favorite fire crew enacts each week. Tonight’s episode is no different. The squad performed a congested sewer drain rescue with two of our firemen suspended entirely upside down. Those who watched the episode surely sat on the edge of their seats, simply waiting for the worst to happen. Thankfully, Wolf Entertainment provided us a behind-the-scenes look at how the rescue really came to life.
This intense rescue took a combination of filming indoors on our stages and outdoors on location! #ChicagoFire #OneChicago pic.twitter.com/6R6vjm251E
— Wolf Entertainment (@WolfEnt) October 7, 2021
The gif above briefly captures the minutes-long rescue in a period of about 10 seconds. Essentially, a girls’ soccer team is playing on a field when one of them falls down into a sewer drain. When the squad arrives at the scene, Severide, Cruz, and Capp immediately rush into action.
Capp and Severide set up a pair of ladders to make an A-frame. The contraption allows them to propel down into the drain. Cruz initially sets up to pull the trapped player out. In the end, Severide makes the save. Although, as far as the making of the scene itself, the rest is relatively unimportant for now.
Set Designers Create Utterly Convincing Action Scenes
The following clip highlights a little bit of how the “Chicago Fire” set designers created the intense scene. And while in action, Squad remains relatively stationary, Wolf Entertainment actually revealed the scene was filmed in two different locations. Check it out.
On our stage, our #ChicagoFire team built a 20ft storm drain hole set with 4ft wild sections; debris/trash in flowing water. We had a bicycle support seat for Grace and SPFX had feeder pipes dripping water! #OneChicago pic.twitter.com/rLfAZv4ktk
— Wolf Entertainment (@WolfEnt) October 7, 2021
If you watch the clip, you’ll notice the drain itself is entirely constructed. Barely a few inches in width, the seemingly real brick siding only mimics the real thing. It rather gives us insight as to how so many of our favorite scenes come alive.
Additionally, the rescued soccer player actually had a bicycle seat to sit on the entire time. So while the camera angles and set design made it appear she would fall into rushing city water, she safely perched on a bicycle seat. The bar simply held her steady throughout.
“Chicago Fire” Rapidly Approaches its 200th Episode
Among the craziness of tonight’s episode and the heartache each one almost always comes with, we got a little bit of the taste of the return characters showrunners discussed in preparation for the 200th episode. “Chicago Fire” showrunner Derek Haas previously shared that, as we near the 200th episode, fans can expect to see the return of long-gone characters, ones we haven’t heard from since “the early days of [the show].”
And “we’ll continue to do that,” he said.
Almost immediately, we were reintroduced to the story of “Chicago Fire’s” very first fatality, firefighter Andy Darden. As a quick recap, Darden perished as an increase in oxygen sent an entire house completely up in flames, the firefighter dying within the first few minutes.
Now we get to know the story of Darden’s son Griffin 10 seasons later. Next week promises a closer look at Darden’s family since his death.
