Chicago Fire recap: Brett and Foster deal with an off-duty emergency

The women of Firehouse 51 have a crash to attend to while off duty on Chicago Fire Season 7, Episode 14. Meanwhile, Firehouse 51 took part in their annual chili cookoff.

Brett, Foster, and Kidd head out on a road trip in Chicago Fire Season 7, Episode 14. It proves to be far more eventful than they would have liked. Meanwhile, the Firehouse 51 men take part in their annual chili cookoff to lighten the mood.

Part of me thinks that this episode is a little too soon. Chicago Fire is no stranger to ripping stories from the headlines but the use of the hockey team bus crash comes less than a year after the Humboldt Broncos bus crash, which was only just recently back in the news when the driver of the trailer-truck pled guilty to causing the crash.

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While it may have been too early for the details of the story, the episode was certainly one of the best of the season — if not the best of the season.

Dealing with the crash

Most of the episode is focused on the women at work. Well, mostly on Brett and Foster at work, as Kidd gets held up at Molly’s thanks to the delivery guy getting the date wrong. Throughout the episode, we see Brett and Foster completely in control with everything that the night throws their way.

It all starts with them stopping to help a man whose car has broken down. You can tell they feel uneasy, wondering whether he’s preying on women, but there’s no time to focus on that. Suddenly, a bus speeds down the road and crashes on its side. That bus had a boys’ hockey team returning from winning a game.

Most of the hockey team is just walking-wounded, so able to climb out of the bus. There’s one guy with a dislocated shoulder, so nothing too major. The most injured person is actually the man from the breakdown, who has a complete fracture in his leg.

That is until the team realizes that one of their guys is missing. Hunter is still in the bus and is crumped up so much that he’s struggling to breathe. Fortunately, Foster finds him and they’re able to get a neck brace on from the hockey kit to support his neck. Now they need to get the seat off him.

When they do get the seat off him, they realize a piece was stuck in him and now he’s bleeding out. The two paramedics have no choice but to get Hunter out of the corner and treat him where there’s some light.

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What to do when the boys get out

With the hockey team out of the bus, it’s time to figure out what to deal with the situation. Two of the team members decide they’ll run to the interstate to get help from there. However, the coach — who the captain of the team doesn’t like — makes it clear that he’ll go out with one of the boys. The team needs its captain to stick around.

Meanwhile, Hunter needs some minor surgery in the field to get a piece of metal out of the wound. Armed with a bottle of tequila and a beauty kit, Foster is able to use her surgical skills to get the metal out. She also uses a metal rod and a flare to cauterize the wound.

Just as it seems everyone is good to wait for help, captain Jacob collapses (maybe it’s a good thing he didn’t head out on that six-mile run). He doesn’t have a pulse and it turns out he was hit in the chest during the accident. With nothing around them, Brett tries bashing his chest the old-school way but it doesn’t work.

Epi, anyone? Well, yes, actually! One of the team members has an epi pen but it’s in a bag stuck in the box. What will they do next?

Kidd to the rescue

After a delay thanks to Molly’s, Kidd finally gets to the crash site. Quickly getting caught up to speed, she throws herself straight into helping. With the help of chains and Kidd’s truck, Brett manages to get the epi pen free and Jacob is saved.

Police and ambulances turn up after the women do their jobs. When they get to the hospital, all boys (and the truck driver that Brett questioned earlier and turned out to be harmless) make it out and it’s definitely thanks to the women.

One thing I will give for this episode is that we got to see a team working together, very similarly to the way Firehouse 51 continuously works together. All hockey players remained calm, listened to their coach, and helped whenever they could.

I also loved seeing Brett and Foster taking over the main part of the episode. So often, we see them dealing with the smaller medical emergencies. This was an excellent chance to see them work a medical emergency in the field with nothing but the items in their car or the bus.

The Firehouse 51 annual chili cookoff

While the paramedics deal with one of their toughest cases, the men go to work on their chilis. They work in their pairs to create the best chili in Firehouse 51 — with the two stand-in paramedics taunting and complaining of discrimination and health violations throughout the night.

The whole part of the episode certainly lightened the mood with everything that was going on with the bus crash. We got to see some friendly banter at the firehouse, Severide and Casey work together on their secret chili, and the moaning paramedics turn out to be the winners.

What did you think of Chicago Fire? What was it like with most of the focus on one case? Did you enjoy seeing the women working together without the men around? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.