who asked you? you wouldn't let me die, would you, dad? sure! dad. if it was a joke, sir, you'd be laughing. i want another shot, sir. if you remember, sir, my test scores were in the top -- i need another one, sir. no, it isn't out of your hands or you wouldn't even have met me. if i push you have to let me back in. dead hero father rule. sir. see you monday. sir. completely out of control. a beer, willy! it's in my blood, willy. didn't offer the kinda growth and challenge i need. management were pin heads. coffee sucked. i was ahead of my time. engine 115, right? lucky guess. and a case of scotch to a captain in station assignments. lots of fires. they promote faster there. take a look at the last lt.'s list, half the guys on it came from that battalion. gotta think about your future, timmy. 115's the station. mrs. viatkus. jennifer. you look great. uh. i've been sorta keeping a low profile. the academy. i graduated today. so. i see you're still in the neighborhood. yeah? what have you been up to? really? no kidding. well, if nothing else, it's nice to know we can still be friends. backdraft. i want to thank you for coming to my graduation, stephen. it was a great inspiration to me. not likely. hey, you forgot. this. hey, sean. what's goin' on, man? it's uncle brian. y'know. "spinach? we don't need no stinking spinach". remember? hellooo. hi, helen. man, you look great. four months. i know, i know, should'a called. i've been really busy. i joined the fire department. that's sean? jeez, he's a giant. sean, come on out, man. what, you forget your favorite uncle? well that's two things to strangle stephen for. where is he, anyway? oh, man, i'm sorry. hey. i talked to helen. man, i thought dad's boat was finally retired to the family graveyard. don't you worry about falling out of this thing? i like what you've done with the place. been ripping off fire stations? bachman turner overdrive? . buffalo springfield?. stephen bishop? oh man. my god, an actual operating 8-track. in the field museum once. it worked when you were in sixth grade. millions, stephen -- and sexual favors. yeah? what about laura -- i wanted to know why you messed with my station assignment. i mean, is this really gonna have to one of those big brother -- little brother "you broke my gi joe and i'm still pissed" games? hey! you don't know me -- so that's it? big bad brother's gonna ride my ass till i cough blood? there's only so much technology can do. thanks for the beer. y'know, i told myself a million times i didn't want to be a fireman. i said bullshit to that line about tradition and family legacy. i know i split, and i know how you felt. i gotta do this, stephen. i gotta know. goddamn it, stephen. i'm brian. i'm in heaven, lt. hey! hey, i think it's coming from a different staircase. i got one! i got somebody! i got somebody! is she. is she alive? shit. yeah. fine. i'm a little busy right now. -- c'mon, stephen. goddamn it stephen! -- i was doin' it! i was up there fucking doin' it. you don't know, man, you don't know what i did! my lt. might have something to say about that. john, when you're in there. in the fire. do you ever see. -- never mind. this is your city job? have you guys got something against dalmatians? do you have to do that? ah man, is he usin' that line now on you? what, you think he made that little gem up? jesus christ, i used to have to listen to my old man use that every morning. what's going on? thanks. hey. with grenadine, right? oooh, very sophisticated. having fun? carrying swayzak's notebook? yeah. swayzak. humanity's last hope. how can you work for that guy? -- all i know is that his programs are getting firemen hurt. what was that? oh man, you have picked up a few moves since john paul ii boulevard. i seem to remember some pretty good nights on jp ii. what? what's going on? yeah. big fan. uh, i think there's been a mistake. i didn't save that woman. no, you don't understand, i saved a mannequin. every little boy's fantasy. i have a job. yeah, we got all kinds of traditions -- like dying young. thanks anyway, mr. swayzak, but fire engines sorta run in my family. politics don't. c'mon jennifer, he's just another north-side jag-off with a mouth. so now you suddenly care about my future? hey, sorry if i made you look bad in front of your boss. but i'm not gonna be a poster boy for him, i'm trying to do something here. there's five hundred smoke eaters in this room that do that stuff for real every day. tell swayzak to talk to one of them. you don't need a drink, man. you need to get outta here. so you got a 'roid going with jackson or what? c'mon, let's crawl home. this? having fun, fireman? what, are you kidding? by myself? what, is it the stairs? christ, i'll let you win next time. no, lt., i don't have a problem with drilling. but let's just have one drill. not one for the company and one for me. goddamn you stephen, i'm not gonna quit. you hear me! christ, stephen, let's wait for the hose team. i waited. i would have fucking waited. dad's way? where did he tell you that? in a fucking seance? you're right, stephen. you win. you're the best, man. i've been thinking about what you said the other night. if the offer's still on the table, i'd like to talk about it. yeah. uh, i'm brian mccaffrey. your new assistant. get used to me, inspector. i'm not going anywhere. i think we should get something straight here. i was assigned to this office by the city. where are you going? hey, do i know you? what the hell are you talking about my -- what do you want me to do with -- what are you listening to? glass? -- another backdraft. no it couldn't. i mean you'd be right -- with normal wire. but that's gauge ten in that plug -- industrial stuff. who knows why they put it in here -- but it won't melt at less than 12,000 degrees. and no natural spark short of lightning gets that hot. in another life i was in high-end electronics. don't mention it. hey, tim. so, you surviving without me? swayzak's not my boss. grindle, scrape down that wall for me, huh? i would myself, but the tie 'n all, y'know. yeah? where? thanks for the insight. just leave me alone, okay? uh, i don't think that's in my contract. "trychtichlorate is a binary structured --" "during heat episodes of 2000 kelvin or higher, trych breaks down and dissipates. will consume magnesium". trychticholorate. then swayzak can announce seagrave was a murder. and the putty around the door? but the right guess on this is arson. some people say you don't do much of anything when it comes to this case. arson. hey. boss and i are up to about three words an hour. i don't know, i'm kinda swamped here. yeah? well, maybe i can fit it in. call ya back. jesus! what? but he killed these guys. what reason? that's why the sealant on the doors. so what have we got, a torch with a conscience? are you going public with this? hey. so are you dating your boss or what? sorry. are you dating anyone? well, you did invite me here. nice boat. okay. no, he's more of a dinosaur. guy's not a dummy, though. he's juggling alot of balls on this one. jesus, give him a break. there isn't enough proof yet to go public. sure, we found some chemical shit we think somebody dumped in the plugs to torch 'em, and we've maybe figured out why backdrafts, but you can't rush this stuff. not 'till it's locked. in a dinosaur kinda way, yeah. thanks for the invite. oh, there might be something stashed away for emergencies. this is one of the oldest fire stations in the city. lotta tradition locked up in here. what do you think? see that trap door up there? that used to lead to the hay loft when they had horse-drawn engines. it was pretty different then. but kinda the same, y'know? when i came back, i knew more than anything else that i wanted to be a fireman. i wanted to be a good one. old firehouse trick. well, our specimen here is your basic standard issue piece of primary suppression equipment. this area is the pumping panel, which controls the rate of liquid insertion into the hose. this is a six inch playpipe, cast bronze to keep it firm during hard flows. this is our pipe extender, used in forward lays. this is our hard suction line. our adjustable insertion nozzle. . and this is the hose bed. excuse us. is he. do they think he'll pull through? i should have been there. you had to do it, didn't you? had to take on another fire bare- handed, huh? had to be fucking myth man in there instead of looking out for your probie. is that what happened? is it, stephen? he didn't listen? he was a fucking candidate! he was your responsibility. he shouldn't have been there in the first place, stephen. you burned him. you told swayzak about our arson lead. it's all over the fucking news. -- bullshit! you knew what i told you wasn't ready for the papers -- -- you could have scared the son of a bitch off. we may never bust him now. all for a couple's political points. yeah? and just how much of all this has been "doing your job"? leave stephen out of this -- -- i work for the city. yeah. in fact, i just dropped off a letter to the times explaining how yesterday's arson announcement was a fabrication by your office. they loved it. and you know what? you were right, my family background in firefighting gave it weight. i'm finished with swayzak. i'll do whatever you want me to do. i just want to help catch the guy that burned tim. you gotta give me another shot. backdraft? fire. somewhere between zero and no way. go talk to the building owner. our book lists the owner as dekom trust. hey boss, dekom trust is owned by pan illinois. which is majority controlled by lakeside dynamics. which is a division of windy city ventures. who's partners are. alan seagrave, donald cosgrove, and jeffrey holcomb. so seagrave and holcomb were accountants. nice bunch of guys. hi. swayzak knows something about the guys that were murdered. i want to know why he keeps that hidden. you could check. it'd be in his files. yes. your boss is lying, jennifer. jennifer? what is -- i'm sorry. you're right. yeah? airtight? i've got three different drafts of the same report -- with different numbers that're all over the place. looks like they were just making it up as they went along. then who wrote the report? how ya feeling? did you pull me out? did i say thanks? just wondering. so what do you want me to do? i'm close. but i can't get who it is. who's doing this? then who -- i don't have a story. what? i. i thought it was great. i loved it. it was nothing to these guys. medium deal. -- i wanted to be him. right then i wanted to be him more than anything. the outlets. trychticholorate. who the fuck is doing this? who's doing this? oh jesus christ. oh goddamn it stephen. just. just wanted to say hello. you're selling dad's boat? i really should get back. there's. there's something i'm supposed to do. look, stephen, maybe we can talk about this some other -- it's okay, stephen, i -- i saw it. when dad died, i saw another fire. i saw it before it got them. i tried to yell, but. he asked me to look out for him. and i didn't do it. i let him die. i hate him so much sometimes, stephen. you don't know how hard it was for me to put that uniform on. sometimes right when you're looking at them. oh god, stephen, what's going on with you? -- stephen, wait a minute. i gotta talk to you. it's adcox, he's -- i saw adcox's back! i saw the burn! i put it there! jesus christ, stephen, he's been killing people! how do you know? -- what were they doing there? what are we going to do about this? we gotta go to rimgale, stephen. oh, christ. stephen. where are they? where's 17? stephen -- did you do it for tim? just come down, john. just -- -- he killed people -- -- stephen, this is bullshit -- you're his lt., stephen. are you gonna handle it? are you stephen? "you never know till the fire stares you down if you're gonna be --" stephen! no! you're gonna be all right, man. hey! over here! no. no more. another time, friend. i'm sorry. i'm sorry i thought. i won't. oh man, don't you die. don't you die. goddamn it don't you die now. not now! yeah. like it never happened. see that glow flashing in the corner of your eye? that's your career dissipation light. and it just went into high gear. i think your boss is going to need some spin control. what'll you do? i'll see ya around, huh? you're doing it wrong.