'Chicago Fire' Season 8: Firehouses 51 and 20 make peace as the show tackles cancer among firefighters
In the winter premiere of Season 8 of 'Chicago Fire', it was announced that Firehouse 51 and Firehouse 20 would be sharing calls in certain areas. While the firefighters at 51 are those we are familiar with, the viewers soon learn that Firehouse 20 is more about the press photos rather than the actual job, when their captain took the credit for a save done by Captain Matthew Casey and candidate Blake Gallo.
Tensions are high among the two firehouses as both teams show up at a car crash site. While Casey's team reaches first, the captain at 20 argues with him that the latter should take it as it is "their streets". Casey convinces the captain to follow his lead, but the latter does so begrudgingly.
When pests take over Firehouse 51, Captain Casey and the team have to bunker down in Firehouse 20 for a couple of days as 51 is fumigated. Things only get worse and we can gauge that 20's captain resents Casey for being made captain at a young age. Later, both firehouses get called to a major fire at a drive-through cleaner. The firefighters of both houses rush to rescue everyone inside. They even work together to keep each other safe. After the fire is controlled, everyone heads back to Firehouse 20. It is then that 20's captain waves a white flag -- he finally respects Casey despite his age.
We also met Mike Buckley -- a former student of Chief Boden's at the Fire Academy -- who now has cancer and is trying to raise awareness for new operational procedures to reduce the cancer rate among firefighters. In a touching moment, we see that Gallo chooses to run a marathon in full firefighter gear in order to raise awareness for the Firefighter Cancer Support Network. As the rest of his teammates cheer him on, Buckley joins in as well, in what is sure to be a tearful moment for viewers.
'Chicago Fire' airs on NBC on Wednesday nights.