Chicago Fire's interesting history of Firehouse 51 fracases

Chicago Fire’s Firehouse 51 often conflicts with other firefighters.

This week’s Chicago Fire rerun, “Where We End Up,” is an example of a recurring theme on the show—Firehouse 51 having problems with another firehouse, or somebody else within the fire department.

In “Where We End Up,” Firehouse 51 is bunking with the members of Firehouse 20 and that creates tension between the teams. Captain Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) butts heads with his opposite number, Captain Delaney, and he’s not the only one in hot water.

But this isn’t the first time Casey has gotten into trouble with a fellow firefighter, and he’s not alone in that distinction, either.

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Remember when Casey ticked off Chief Pridgen, after having slept with Pridgen’s ex-wife Beth?

Or when Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker) ticked off Deputy District Chief Anderson and the other man had it out for Boden afterward?

Or the whole Grissom and Gorsch of it all over the last few seasons?

Firehouse 20 isn’t alone in having issues with the firefighters of 51, and that’s kind of amusing when you look at the totality of it. In fairness, Chicago Fire is much less likely to show the people that our heroes haven’t upset, because that’s not interesting TV. Showing people from another house just coming by to say hello or drop off some extra supplies would be a random use of a few valuable minutes of screen time.

So what we get, as a result, is largely inter-department conflict like what we’re about to see again this week.

When Chicago Fire does show positive interactions between 51 and other houses, though, it’s led to some of the show’s best moments. Remember that both Blake Gallo (Alberto Rosende) and Darren Ritter (recurring guest star Daniel Kyri) were first introduced as members of other teams before they came to Firehouse 51.

There were also two other great stories in the past two years, both involving Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg): the moment where Herrmann rallied a group to help a firefighter in need, and the heartbreaking story where Herrmann lost a friend during a fire call. We see less of these stories for the aforementioned dramatic reasons, but they’re always so captivating that it’s a bit of a shame they don’t happen more often.

At least the show is more well-rounded than the other One Chicago shows, where cops from anywhere outside of Intelligence tend to just get in the way, and doctors who screw up are almost always from Lakeshore and not Chicago Med. But when you re-watch “Where We End Up” this week, you’ll have a hard time not chuckling at Firehouse 51’s latest conflict with their colleagues; hopefully we’ll see a little more collaboration instead of confrontation in season 9.

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Chicago Fire’s interesting history of firehouse fracases

By Brittany Frederick | Jul 7, 2020

Chicago Fire’s Firehouse 51 often conflicts with other firefighters.