When Fire on Film Set Turned Out to Be Real, This Chicago Firefighter Stepped In
Michael Agostinelli wasn’t playing a firefighter on the new NBC series “Chicago Med,” but he was working on the set as a medic when he noticed that a nearby house had …
Michael Agostinelli wasn’t playing a firefighter on the new NBC series “Chicago Med,” but he was working on the set as a medic when he noticed that a nearby house had caught fire.
The TV show, which is about a Chicago trauma center, was filming in the 4800 block of S. Kimbark Ave. in Kenwood. Agostinelli smelled smoke and saw a light haze coming from the back of a two-story, wood-frame house just a few doors down and immediately knew something was wrong.
“I knew it wasn’t part of the scene,” Agostinelli told Chicago Tribune reporters. “That wasn’t in the, uh, plan for the day.”
Agostinelli walked to the home and alerted the family, telling them that it looked like their roof was on fire. He then checked the home to make sure that the family had evacuated the house and called 911.
Three minutes later, fire crews arrived, but by that point, the fire had spread to the attic. A 2-11 alarm was called out to get more crews there to stop the fire and ensure that it didn’t spread to other nearby houses.
In all, a total of 130 firefighters and paramedics arrived at the scene, according to Fox32 in Chicago.
Thankfully no one was hurt, and the fire didn’t spread. The house, however, did see extensive damage.
Preventative measures, such as automatic sprinklers and early warning systems in homes or other buildings, have been known to cut the risk of injury, loss of life, and property damage in half. In this case, however, it was the luck of having a firefighter close by that helped save the family inside the home.
Agostinelli, who is assigned to the Austin neighborhood firehouse of Engine 117, Tower Ladder 14, said it was all in a day’s work when he spoke to reporters about the incident.
“Just doing my job, doing what I was trained to do,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “Nothing major, you know, just making a phone call, making sure everybody’s out.”