‘Chicago Fire’: People Sometimes Mistake Scenes for Real Accidents

Chicago Fire is full of action and you never know what will happen next. Charlie Barnett says the action looks so convincing that sometimes people on the street think the scenes are real.

by Sheiresa Ngo

Published on May 12, 2022

3 min read

‘Chicago Fire’ Season 10

The cast of Chicago Fire poses for a photo.

The cast of Chicago Fire | Elizabeth Sisson/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Chicago Fire Season 10 is coming to a close (here’s when the Chicago Fire Season 10 finale airs). The big event everyone is waiting for is Severide and Stella Kidd’s wedding. Another thing we can’t wait for is the return of Matt Casey (played by Jesse Spencer). He moved to Oregon so he could help take care of his late friend’s children, but he promised Severide he would be his best man. This is what will bring Casey back to the Windy City.

Just like most TV season finales, there will be some twists and turns. Stellaride’s wedding will reportedly not go as planned, reports TV Line. We have no idea what this means, but we can’t wait to see what happens.

“The wedding is indeed — we’re headed towards a finale that is going to be very memorable,” co-showrunner Derek Haas tells the publication. “The Kidd-Severide build-up has been a long time coming and the event, we’re Chicago Fire, so if you think it’s going to be one thing, it might not exactly happen the way all the characters have it in mind to happen.”

‘Chicago Fire’ scenes are so realistic that fans think the accidents are real

During an interview with You and Me This Morning, former Chicago Fire star Charlie Barnett says some scenes are so realistic that people think a real accident has occurred. He recalled a scene where a plane crashes on the highway. People thought the crash was real and began calling emergency services.

“We were trying to tweet [the news station] at the same time,” says Barnett. “WGN, we found out that they had picked it up, and there was I guess, one of the crew guys had found out or something. The funniest story—[people] were sitting there videotaping us, [and] they see all the firefighters around us. The woman is like, ‘I see these people doing things, but it doesn’t look like anyone is helping anyone!’” (Read about Barnett and how his Chicago Fire dismissal “broke” him.)

Is the fire on ‘Chicago Fire’ real?

If you’ve ever wondered if the fire is real on Chicago Fire, the answer is yes. Real fire is used on the set. Jayson Crothers, a cinematographer for Chicago Fire from 2014 to 2018, tells American Cinematographer, “every couple of episodes we have a big burn.”

Crothers says fires that take place outdoors are filmed on location and fires that take place indoors are held in a controlled environment on what is called a “Burn Stage” in a converted warehouse. The cinematographer says the set-up process can take a long time. (Read about Taylor Kinney’s house fire and how it caused him to become a fire safety advocate.)

“Every setup on the Burn Stage takes between 45 minutes and an hour to set up,” says Crothers. “We design our setups to get as many edits as we can within a single setup, but they never run very long.” He tells the publication that scenes won’t run any longer than 20 or 30 seconds because the heat can become intense.

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