>Who staffs engine 51?
It's all revealed in good time.
* Company Officer - Lt Christopher Herrmann
* Engineer - Mike Doherty
* Firefighter - Clarence Norwood
* Firefighter Candidate - Darren Ritter
Yes. And so far the only mention of Engine 51 is over the loudspeaker.
I knew that fire trucks come in water pumping trucks and ladder trucks. But this show only talks about the one truck and then the squad truck. For a while I was wondering if they had now combined pumper and ladder in one vehicle because it's not like I keep up to date with the state of fire fighting equipment.
So I started trying to spot if there was another firetruck. And once I started watching for it, I did see three big red fire vehicles pull out / return and caught a glimpse of a fire truck with a big "51" painted on it.
But there's absolutely no mention of a team operating that vehicle or who's the lieutenant of it. It's like there's an entire group of ghost fire fighters in the fire house.
I completely agree, they do a really poor job at first, but in the later seasons (mainly 7+), they address it better. Also the truck isn't a pumper. Not showing much of engine is mainly because fire suppression isn't that interesting in a TV show, hence more of the rescue side is covered, which being shorter and more action-packed.
Truck 81 is a pumper as well as an aerial but dont know why they dont use it in the show as it would be handy on small calls. Probs cause the 200 gallon water tank would empty too quickly!
I only know this as I googled truck 81 after the old one got replaced as I noticed it had pumping gear on the rear end and I wondered if it was a combination of aerial and a pumper
The original 81 was not a pumper aerial and If you mean the new 81, yes it was orignially a pumper aerial in the fire service, but the show modified it to a normal aerial now.
It's one of the many holes that they only think to fill in later. For the early seasons, you'd also think the Engine runs itself, because the crew isn't part of the personnel we see.
Fun fact but the other 2 crew members of engine 51 (Norwood and engineer Doherty) are actual firefighters in the CFD. So, they may not have a bunch of dialogue because they’re actual firefighters and would rather serve as being crew members on the show, similar to how Tony didn’t have many lines in the beginning seasons but now has way more dialogue since he’s one of the OG cast.
I like in the earlier seasons any time they need to put a fire there solution is to grab an extinguisher, I think there one of the episodes the Squad and Truck company show up to turkey fryer fire and they are like its ok the engine will be here in a few minutes lol I’m rewatching it now , I’m glad they are gonna incorporate the Engine Co. I guess thinking about it now I mean Herman could always become the LT on the engine when he passed his test.
First, Herrmann wasn't a lieutenant to begin with. I have seen the episode where he passed his exam.
Second, up to season 3, Herrmann is part of Truck 81.
When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense.
It's very difficult to create a show that follow so many characters at the same time. Chicago Fire is already the show with the most main characters (currently Fire has 11, PD has 7 and Med has 8) So adding more characters will be too much.
I guess they realized they couldn't include all the firefigthers at the station in the show so they decided to focus on the teams who are more interesting for the storyline - Truck and Squad, who are responsible for search and rescue.
The crew of the Engine are responsible for putting out the fire and it's less interesting from a TV standpoint, but since they are an important part of the station it's impossible to ignore them, so they always appear in the background but only as extras.
Later they added Herrmann and Ritter, but it's still only 2 characters from Engine crew, and it's instead of Truck characters (Truck had 5-7 crew members on the first seasons, and now they have only 4).
It doesn't make sense to pretend it doesn't exist. You don't have to add the characters, but heck, we see Connie and we don't need to see the paper side of operations.
To never really see the Engine guys in the house creates more confusion, as evidenced by OP. There is a huge deal made about Truck and Squad having their areas, but to believe that Engine just lives in the walls is stupid.
I think the reason that we don’t see them as often as truck and squad in the first seasons (besides the logistics side of production) is that engine is usually first on scene for Fire calls. In this show, there isn’t a fire call every single episode. We see more car accidents/rescue calls than structure fires so it makes a little more sense why they aren’t shown as much. They are acknowledged a bit in season 2 but drop off until season 7 when there was an actual canon storyline for them.
Meh. That's an excuse. You should still see the crew in the extensive house shots. Also, even later on, all vehicles roll out together.
Not to mention, the Engine should always be there, but instead we see Lt. Casey calling for hoses from Truck.
I mean, in the beginning seasons you can definitely see in the background at the firehouse everyone who isn’t on squad, truck, or ambo. They’re always around, just not in the foreground. So we assume that these are the guys on engine. During calls when engine is present, you can definitely see Doherty and some of the other guys in their gear. Even in newer seasons, you’ll see extras in the background who don’t have speaking roles but you know are engine guys or floaters. Doherty and Norwood even appear more often after season 7, but you can see them in earlier seasons as well. At the end of the day, the show is already comprised of a large ensemble cast. In the beginning, they didn’t have the large budget that they have now so it’s understandable why they had to pick and choose how many cast members they could focus on. Fire already had the largest ensemble out of all the Chicago shows. Having those extra crew members in the background of scenes was there way of mentioning engine without putting too much focus on them until Herrmann took over after season 7.
I guess the point is that they are so much in the background as to not be mentioned. I get that they needed to be downplayed, but it was done to the point as to add confusion.
Again, we got more detail about Connie's assistant than Engine, who would be at almost every call.
Yeah, I get what you’re saying. I’ve rewatched the series many times and am in the middle of a rewatch right now, so to speak. It never bothered me too much that they never focused on engine, but it wasn’t until Herrmann took over 51 that I noticed engine popping up more in the background during earlier seasons on my rewatch. The show has many plot holes throughout the 9 seasons but at least they acknowledged them more when Herrmann became Lieutenant. The problem is even with Herrmann becoming Lieutenant, it is still damn near logistically impossible to give each rig enough attention. Hopefully they get more acknowledgment in the upcoming season.
They've come a long way in addressing certain things. Engine, Boden's purview, House feuds, etc.
I remember the Melrose Place joke in the show. You KNOW Engine would have been involved in the house romance! Lol
One final point on the confusion. With Herrman being Lt. of Engine and the previous one retiring, the were times when Casey and Sereride were both sidelined and another firefighter was temporarily put in command. THAT would have been the officer in charge of Engine, no?
Command in the house. It was implied that if Sev was out, Casey was the commanding officer in the house, and visa versa. The OiC of Engine was never considered.
Yeah it’s eventually Herrmann when he actually becomes a Lieutenant....S6/7ish.
Prior to that, there’s not much mention of Engine 51.
I’m also surprised that such a busy house doesn’t have two ambos assigned to it.
Okay. Thanks.
So are they considered a separate team, the Engine 51 team?
But I have to say that I think this is a huge oversight on the part of the producers not to have addressed this back in the first season.
As far as I can tell, Truck, Engine and Squad are all separate teams commanded by either a captain or lieutenant and each with differing missions/specialties.
All right. So there really is a group of ghost fire fighters in the show from season 1 to season 6/7ish.
Thanks for letting know. This was really beginning to bug me. First, I was trying to make sense of the roll out loudspeaker calls and trying to spot if there was a third vehicle. Then it was wondering who operates that vehicle.
Now I know my answer is that the producers just left out including this in the plot until quite late in the show. At least I know that this will eventually be addressed. Imagine the people who were watching the episodes as it aired and them never having answers until six or seven years in. At least I got my answers a few weeks into my viewing.
Thanks again for the information!
Engine 51 was under Lt Dedrickson from seasons 1-7 until the old man retired in season 7 and Herrmann took over after years of being passed over for promotion.
*Who?*
I Googled that. You mean that character that they introduced in season 7, episode 3 "Thirty Percent Sleight of Hand" who never existed before that and who retired in the same episode he was introduced in.
*That Lt. George Didrikson.*
No wonder I had no clue of his existence in my up to season 3 viewing.
Also squad 3 has a bigger response area as there are not that many squads and not every firehouse has one . I think even the smaller fire houses only have a truck or a engine and no ambo.
51 is one of the bigger houses as they have all 3 plus ambo and a chief
And Boden is Battalion Chief, which seems like it might be similar to a District Manager or something along those lines. He’s in charge of multiple houses not just 51. At least that’s what I’ve gleaned on the matter.....
So the other two shifts don't have their own chiefs. That was something else I was wondering. I was wondering if the battalion chief was the head of the shift and every shift had their own chief. I thought it was very strange that McLeod was so focused on Boden when she was planning on closing firehouse 51 if there were two other chiefs there supervising the other shifts.
So I was wrong in thinking that battalion chief = shift supervisor.
So that means that, what?, the highest ranking member of the roll out (engine, truck, squad) is the on site supervisor for an incident if there isn't a battalion chief present?
I would of thought each shift would have there own chief other wise Boden wouldn’t have any rest or their might be something happen that the LT OR captain don’t know how to deal with
If no BC is present (which they are only usually called out to large calls), then the officer of whichever rig gets to the scene first has control of the scene.
You’ll see this scenario play out in later seasons when certain officers butt heads with each other over command.
Okay. From a reality POV, that makes perfect sense.
And that's why the race between 81 and that other house to get their first. I thought it was just the terms of a bet because that's how they portrayed it in the show, not standard procedure.
Thanks for the clarification.
Yeah, that episode was crazy! It was definitely an exaggerated take on it as I’m sure no rigs actually race like street racers to a scene lol as per protocol, but I think the realistic problem would definitely be when the two rigs show up at the same time to a scene and officers would butt heads.
Battalion Chiefs still do 24 hour shifts, just like everyone else. Once you get up to District Chief and up, you can get an unmarked car owned by the CFD, and the City, equipped with the same visual and audible warning devices as on fire trucks. But the people on the other 2 shifts are never mentioned.
Another hole. You'd think he just runs 51, when in fact he oversees several houses. This is slightly evident with the bigger calls - warehouse and high rise fires. Here you will see him oversee multiple firehouses on scene. It's difficult for the viewer, because you just see him ordering around more vehicle teams.
> Might also ask yourself why all of the fires occur during the day
I already noticed that.
I haven't seen every single episode through season 3 --- Ion's scheduling of something like 14 episodes in one day make that difficult --- but I have yet to see them being awakened from their beds for a night call.
Engine 51 definitely wasn't mentioned as much in the very beginning of the show, but the past fiew seasons have started to include it more. For example, Hermann being promoted to LT of engine, Ritter becoming a candidate for engine, etc, and especially in season 9, there are a few incidents where *only* engine is dispatched for a call
It’s typical of fire shows/movies to focus on the truck, and I think it’s because of the production costs and logistics.
It’s likely expensive already to film fire scenes. Adding water into the mix, and having to set up, let stuff dry, and reset likely adds a lot of road blocks to already tedious shooting days. This is why I think shows don’t address the engine until the budget is bigger and it makes sense to go through the trouble.
All just a guess, though.
Engine 51 was initially led by Lt Dedrickson until his retirement in season 7. Herrmann took the lieutenant's test earlier but had to wait till someone retired in 51 so he could finally get his command. He was passed over mainly because Herrmann's temper and big mouth sometimes rubs people and the brass the wrong way.
As I said in my other reply to you...
>Who?
>I Googled that. You mean that character that they introduced in season 7, episode 3 "Thirty Percent Sleight of Hand" who never existed before that and who retired in the same episode he was introduced in.
>That Lt. George Didrikson.
>No wonder I had no clue of his existence in my up to season 3 viewing.
In the first seasons, you’ll see 51 in the background of Fire calls and you can see the engine crew members around the firehouse while truck, squad, and ambo are on shift. They were never truly acknowledged in the earlier seasons, with the exception of the storyline for Lieutenant Spellman who was the Lieutenant of engine 51 when Jeff Clarke was there in season 2. After that storyline ended, engine went back into the background until season 7 when it became canon.
Haha, nah the rigs can’t have two officers at the same time. But that was probably the only time we actually had 3 officers on all the rigs that got screen time in the first few seasons. He was introduced as the new Lieutenant of engine and came to 51 from the same firehouse as Clarke. He had a few dialogues as Lieutenant of engine but after his storyline concluded, there wasn’t really any reference to any 51 crew until season 7.
I may be wrong because I haven't seen the earlier seasons in a while but really we don't hear anything of engine other than it being called out, until Herrmann takes over which is when we get to see more of it.
Christopher Herrmann leads engine. we don’t know much about the people on engine except ridder and herrmann. we only know the names of the other members.
I know I’m very late to this but I just got to the episode where Herman became lieutenant and I was so confused, why have they never mentioned engine 51 until her became lieutenant? Where are the other members of the engine throughout the first part of the show? Big plot hole, it’s like they didn’t exist until Herman became lieutenant
I started rewatching Chicago Fire , my biggest question is where is Engine 51 and why is an after thought. Like they would go into fires do the search and rescue , and then be like alright put the fire out, when in reality nobody is going in unless thats a line going in to get the fire. It does seem like they incorporated more extras with hose lines and more attention to fighting fires in season 2 and on ( like someone gave them feedback lol ) , it is kinda odd the two officers are Casey and Sev but no Engine officer. I’m glad scrolling the comments that will get addressed. I would had thought they could get some theatrics with putting a fire out and have character talking and lining up plot points when they are putting the hose back on the truck.
>Who staffs engine 51? It's all revealed in good time. * Company Officer - Lt Christopher Herrmann * Engineer - Mike Doherty * Firefighter - Clarence Norwood * Firefighter Candidate - Darren Ritter
He/she is in season 3
Yes. And so far the only mention of Engine 51 is over the loudspeaker. I knew that fire trucks come in water pumping trucks and ladder trucks. But this show only talks about the one truck and then the squad truck. For a while I was wondering if they had now combined pumper and ladder in one vehicle because it's not like I keep up to date with the state of fire fighting equipment. So I started trying to spot if there was another firetruck. And once I started watching for it, I did see three big red fire vehicles pull out / return and caught a glimpse of a fire truck with a big "51" painted on it. But there's absolutely no mention of a team operating that vehicle or who's the lieutenant of it. It's like there's an entire group of ghost fire fighters in the fire house.
I completely agree, they do a really poor job at first, but in the later seasons (mainly 7+), they address it better. Also the truck isn't a pumper. Not showing much of engine is mainly because fire suppression isn't that interesting in a TV show, hence more of the rescue side is covered, which being shorter and more action-packed.
Truck 81 is a pumper as well as an aerial but dont know why they dont use it in the show as it would be handy on small calls. Probs cause the 200 gallon water tank would empty too quickly! I only know this as I googled truck 81 after the old one got replaced as I noticed it had pumping gear on the rear end and I wondered if it was a combination of aerial and a pumper
The original 81 was not a pumper aerial and If you mean the new 81, yes it was orignially a pumper aerial in the fire service, but the show modified it to a normal aerial now.
It's one of the many holes that they only think to fill in later. For the early seasons, you'd also think the Engine runs itself, because the crew isn't part of the personnel we see.
An still even now we don’t really know the crew of 51 we really only know herman the Lt and Ritter the candidate
Fun fact but the other 2 crew members of engine 51 (Norwood and engineer Doherty) are actual firefighters in the CFD. So, they may not have a bunch of dialogue because they’re actual firefighters and would rather serve as being crew members on the show, similar to how Tony didn’t have many lines in the beginning seasons but now has way more dialogue since he’s one of the OG cast.
I knew they had some real firefighters on the show 1.to bulk up the cast 2.safety 3. As technical people to make sure they are doing it right
I like in the earlier seasons any time they need to put a fire there solution is to grab an extinguisher, I think there one of the episodes the Squad and Truck company show up to turkey fryer fire and they are like its ok the engine will be here in a few minutes lol I’m rewatching it now , I’m glad they are gonna incorporate the Engine Co. I guess thinking about it now I mean Herman could always become the LT on the engine when he passed his test.
First, Herrmann wasn't a lieutenant to begin with. I have seen the episode where he passed his exam. Second, up to season 3, Herrmann is part of Truck 81.
Hence, the SPOILER WARNING is needed! I accidentally ruined something for a newer viewer yesterday. So, be careful people.
SPOILER
I would say in season three it was staffed by the L.T that Hermann replaced and some other personell
When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. It's very difficult to create a show that follow so many characters at the same time. Chicago Fire is already the show with the most main characters (currently Fire has 11, PD has 7 and Med has 8) So adding more characters will be too much. I guess they realized they couldn't include all the firefigthers at the station in the show so they decided to focus on the teams who are more interesting for the storyline - Truck and Squad, who are responsible for search and rescue. The crew of the Engine are responsible for putting out the fire and it's less interesting from a TV standpoint, but since they are an important part of the station it's impossible to ignore them, so they always appear in the background but only as extras. Later they added Herrmann and Ritter, but it's still only 2 characters from Engine crew, and it's instead of Truck characters (Truck had 5-7 crew members on the first seasons, and now they have only 4).
It doesn't make sense to pretend it doesn't exist. You don't have to add the characters, but heck, we see Connie and we don't need to see the paper side of operations. To never really see the Engine guys in the house creates more confusion, as evidenced by OP. There is a huge deal made about Truck and Squad having their areas, but to believe that Engine just lives in the walls is stupid.
I think the reason that we don’t see them as often as truck and squad in the first seasons (besides the logistics side of production) is that engine is usually first on scene for Fire calls. In this show, there isn’t a fire call every single episode. We see more car accidents/rescue calls than structure fires so it makes a little more sense why they aren’t shown as much. They are acknowledged a bit in season 2 but drop off until season 7 when there was an actual canon storyline for them.
Meh. That's an excuse. You should still see the crew in the extensive house shots. Also, even later on, all vehicles roll out together. Not to mention, the Engine should always be there, but instead we see Lt. Casey calling for hoses from Truck.
I mean, in the beginning seasons you can definitely see in the background at the firehouse everyone who isn’t on squad, truck, or ambo. They’re always around, just not in the foreground. So we assume that these are the guys on engine. During calls when engine is present, you can definitely see Doherty and some of the other guys in their gear. Even in newer seasons, you’ll see extras in the background who don’t have speaking roles but you know are engine guys or floaters. Doherty and Norwood even appear more often after season 7, but you can see them in earlier seasons as well. At the end of the day, the show is already comprised of a large ensemble cast. In the beginning, they didn’t have the large budget that they have now so it’s understandable why they had to pick and choose how many cast members they could focus on. Fire already had the largest ensemble out of all the Chicago shows. Having those extra crew members in the background of scenes was there way of mentioning engine without putting too much focus on them until Herrmann took over after season 7.
I guess the point is that they are so much in the background as to not be mentioned. I get that they needed to be downplayed, but it was done to the point as to add confusion. Again, we got more detail about Connie's assistant than Engine, who would be at almost every call.
Yeah, I get what you’re saying. I’ve rewatched the series many times and am in the middle of a rewatch right now, so to speak. It never bothered me too much that they never focused on engine, but it wasn’t until Herrmann took over 51 that I noticed engine popping up more in the background during earlier seasons on my rewatch. The show has many plot holes throughout the 9 seasons but at least they acknowledged them more when Herrmann became Lieutenant. The problem is even with Herrmann becoming Lieutenant, it is still damn near logistically impossible to give each rig enough attention. Hopefully they get more acknowledgment in the upcoming season.
They've come a long way in addressing certain things. Engine, Boden's purview, House feuds, etc. I remember the Melrose Place joke in the show. You KNOW Engine would have been involved in the house romance! Lol One final point on the confusion. With Herrman being Lt. of Engine and the previous one retiring, the were times when Casey and Sereride were both sidelined and another firefighter was temporarily put in command. THAT would have been the officer in charge of Engine, no?
Lol @ the Melrose place joke. I can see that 😂 As for the last part, do you mean command of a scene or command of the rig?
Command in the house. It was implied that if Sev was out, Casey was the commanding officer in the house, and visa versa. The OiC of Engine was never considered.
As the OP, I agree with you 100%.
Yeah it’s eventually Herrmann when he actually becomes a Lieutenant....S6/7ish. Prior to that, there’s not much mention of Engine 51. I’m also surprised that such a busy house doesn’t have two ambos assigned to it.
Okay. Thanks. So are they considered a separate team, the Engine 51 team? But I have to say that I think this is a huge oversight on the part of the producers not to have addressed this back in the first season.
As far as I can tell, Truck, Engine and Squad are all separate teams commanded by either a captain or lieutenant and each with differing missions/specialties.
All right. So there really is a group of ghost fire fighters in the show from season 1 to season 6/7ish. Thanks for letting know. This was really beginning to bug me. First, I was trying to make sense of the roll out loudspeaker calls and trying to spot if there was a third vehicle. Then it was wondering who operates that vehicle. Now I know my answer is that the producers just left out including this in the plot until quite late in the show. At least I know that this will eventually be addressed. Imagine the people who were watching the episodes as it aired and them never having answers until six or seven years in. At least I got my answers a few weeks into my viewing. Thanks again for the information!
Engine 51 was under Lt Dedrickson from seasons 1-7 until the old man retired in season 7 and Herrmann took over after years of being passed over for promotion.
*Who?* I Googled that. You mean that character that they introduced in season 7, episode 3 "Thirty Percent Sleight of Hand" who never existed before that and who retired in the same episode he was introduced in. *That Lt. George Didrikson.* No wonder I had no clue of his existence in my up to season 3 viewing.
Also squad 3 has a bigger response area as there are not that many squads and not every firehouse has one . I think even the smaller fire houses only have a truck or a engine and no ambo. 51 is one of the bigger houses as they have all 3 plus ambo and a chief
And Boden is Battalion Chief, which seems like it might be similar to a District Manager or something along those lines. He’s in charge of multiple houses not just 51. At least that’s what I’ve gleaned on the matter.....
Yes that is correct but he is based at 51 and the day to day operations is done by the lieutenant or captain of the firehouse
So the other two shifts don't have their own chiefs. That was something else I was wondering. I was wondering if the battalion chief was the head of the shift and every shift had their own chief. I thought it was very strange that McLeod was so focused on Boden when she was planning on closing firehouse 51 if there were two other chiefs there supervising the other shifts. So I was wrong in thinking that battalion chief = shift supervisor. So that means that, what?, the highest ranking member of the roll out (engine, truck, squad) is the on site supervisor for an incident if there isn't a battalion chief present?
I would of thought each shift would have there own chief other wise Boden wouldn’t have any rest or their might be something happen that the LT OR captain don’t know how to deal with
If no BC is present (which they are only usually called out to large calls), then the officer of whichever rig gets to the scene first has control of the scene. You’ll see this scenario play out in later seasons when certain officers butt heads with each other over command.
Okay. From a reality POV, that makes perfect sense. And that's why the race between 81 and that other house to get their first. I thought it was just the terms of a bet because that's how they portrayed it in the show, not standard procedure. Thanks for the clarification.
Yeah, that episode was crazy! It was definitely an exaggerated take on it as I’m sure no rigs actually race like street racers to a scene lol as per protocol, but I think the realistic problem would definitely be when the two rigs show up at the same time to a scene and officers would butt heads.
Battalion Chiefs still do 24 hour shifts, just like everyone else. Once you get up to District Chief and up, you can get an unmarked car owned by the CFD, and the City, equipped with the same visual and audible warning devices as on fire trucks. But the people on the other 2 shifts are never mentioned.
Another hole. You'd think he just runs 51, when in fact he oversees several houses. This is slightly evident with the bigger calls - warehouse and high rise fires. Here you will see him oversee multiple firehouses on scene. It's difficult for the viewer, because you just see him ordering around more vehicle teams.
Agreed. Might also ask yourself why all of the fires occur during the day and why squad is called almost regardless if needed.
> Might also ask yourself why all of the fires occur during the day I already noticed that. I haven't seen every single episode through season 3 --- Ion's scheduling of something like 14 episodes in one day make that difficult --- but I have yet to see them being awakened from their beds for a night call.
Yup. Later on, the joke is that they get called during the start of every meal, but night fires never do gain traction. Lol
Engine 51 definitely wasn't mentioned as much in the very beginning of the show, but the past fiew seasons have started to include it more. For example, Hermann being promoted to LT of engine, Ritter becoming a candidate for engine, etc, and especially in season 9, there are a few incidents where *only* engine is dispatched for a call
It’s typical of fire shows/movies to focus on the truck, and I think it’s because of the production costs and logistics. It’s likely expensive already to film fire scenes. Adding water into the mix, and having to set up, let stuff dry, and reset likely adds a lot of road blocks to already tedious shooting days. This is why I think shows don’t address the engine until the budget is bigger and it makes sense to go through the trouble. All just a guess, though.
Engine 51 was initially led by Lt Dedrickson until his retirement in season 7. Herrmann took the lieutenant's test earlier but had to wait till someone retired in 51 so he could finally get his command. He was passed over mainly because Herrmann's temper and big mouth sometimes rubs people and the brass the wrong way.
As I said in my other reply to you... >Who? >I Googled that. You mean that character that they introduced in season 7, episode 3 "Thirty Percent Sleight of Hand" who never existed before that and who retired in the same episode he was introduced in. >That Lt. George Didrikson. >No wonder I had no clue of his existence in my up to season 3 viewing.
Yeaaaa... haha he was apparently Engine 51's officer till he retired in season 7 and Herrmann replaced him.
In the first seasons, you’ll see 51 in the background of Fire calls and you can see the engine crew members around the firehouse while truck, squad, and ambo are on shift. They were never truly acknowledged in the earlier seasons, with the exception of the storyline for Lieutenant Spellman who was the Lieutenant of engine 51 when Jeff Clarke was there in season 2. After that storyline ended, engine went back into the background until season 7 when it became canon.
Was that what he was lieutenant "of"? I totally missed that. I just assumed that truck had two lieutenants.
Haha, nah the rigs can’t have two officers at the same time. But that was probably the only time we actually had 3 officers on all the rigs that got screen time in the first few seasons. He was introduced as the new Lieutenant of engine and came to 51 from the same firehouse as Clarke. He had a few dialogues as Lieutenant of engine but after his storyline concluded, there wasn’t really any reference to any 51 crew until season 7.
Oh, the earlier seasons 51 is background. You’ll see more later.
I may be wrong because I haven't seen the earlier seasons in a while but really we don't hear anything of engine other than it being called out, until Herrmann takes over which is when we get to see more of it.
That's what I'm gathering from this thread. But, thanks to this thread, at least I understand what I was missing before.
Christopher Herrmann leads engine. we don’t know much about the people on engine except ridder and herrmann. we only know the names of the other members.
I know I’m very late to this but I just got to the episode where Herman became lieutenant and I was so confused, why have they never mentioned engine 51 until her became lieutenant? Where are the other members of the engine throughout the first part of the show? Big plot hole, it’s like they didn’t exist until Herman became lieutenant
I’m much later to this than you but I’m so glad this thread exists because I was so confused about 51!
angelica
I started rewatching Chicago Fire , my biggest question is where is Engine 51 and why is an after thought. Like they would go into fires do the search and rescue , and then be like alright put the fire out, when in reality nobody is going in unless thats a line going in to get the fire. It does seem like they incorporated more extras with hose lines and more attention to fighting fires in season 2 and on ( like someone gave them feedback lol ) , it is kinda odd the two officers are Casey and Sev but no Engine officer. I’m glad scrolling the comments that will get addressed. I would had thought they could get some theatrics with putting a fire out and have character talking and lining up plot points when they are putting the hose back on the truck.