Like "Emergency" before it, "Third Watch" has the potential to influence how Americans view the emergency services. Curious about its dedication to realism, Fire Chief spoke with the show's creator and technical advisor.

Creator Ed Bernero Ed Bernero, creator and supervising producer for "Third Watch," was a police officer for 10 years on the northwest side of Chicago.

FC: How did you get involved in writing for television?

Bernero: I was working on midnights for my last six years on the police department in Chicago, and I would go home in the morning. My wife was at work and my kids were at school, so writing started as something to do. People always tell cops, "You have all these stories, you should write a book." I said, "Well, I've got time. I should try." I tried to write a book and it was absolutely horrible. I sort of rambled. I could not stay focused on what I would write.

I was complaining about it to another policeman, who was an actor, and he asked if I had ever tried scripts, because you have a certain amount of time to get said what you want to get said. So I got the book "Screenplay" by Sid Field, read it and starting writing scripts. It was therapy. I would go home in the morning, write about things that happened the night before and get it out - then I was able to go to sleep.

I did that for a couple of years until I realized, "Wow, this isn't bad," and I started sending things out. The vice president of NBC read one of my scripts and called me up and asked me if I ever did television. Not only had I not thought about television scripts, I didn't watch television because I went to work at 11 p.m., so I slept during primetime. I didn't even know what was on television, so I watched some television shows and wrote what is called a spec script of "Homicide" and sent it out. The next week I had a bunch of agents call me for out here and L.A.

FC: What else have you worked on?

Bernero: "Brooklyn South" was my first full-time job in television, and when it was canceled the next year I went on a show called "Trinity," which was on for a very short time. It was a John Wells show; he's the executive producer of "ER."

When "Trinity" was cancelled after four or five episodes, he called me up and asked if I wanted to create a show with him. He had a backlog of paramedic stories from doing research for "ER" - the stuff that happened before people came into the er. He had this backlog of stories he was always interested in doing, and I certainly had cop stories to tell, so we decided to make it about the street personnel who work on streets in our neighborhood: firemen, paramedics and police. Sort of like "ER Outside"; you know, everything that happens before "ER."

FC: Where do you get the story ideas, and how realistic are they?

Bernero: Well, naturally a lot of the cop stuff comes from me, the stuff that I did for 10 years. A lot of the paramedic things are holdovers from research that was done for "ER." The fire stuff we really don't have a model to go by, because no one is really doing a fire show.

We have a full-time researcher who is tremendous. She combs the Internet looking for story ideas, and she also goes to conventions where we schedule interviews with anyone who will talk with us. We talk - or the members of the show talk - to firemen from all over the country and paramedics all over the country, and we hope to get story ideas from them. Some things we make up; then we call people and ask, "Is this possible?"

We really want the show to be right. It's important to me as someone who used to work on the streets. It's important to me that people who do that job and watch our show feel that we're representing them. We're not just going for drama at any cost - we're representing what they do. They know we're fans of theirs and that we're not looking for the scandalous stories or to be sensationalistic. I want people to walk away from the program with a small bit of understanding of what it's like.

FC: Do you maintain a balance among the fire, police and paramedic plots?

Bernero: No, we realistically cannot do fires as often as we'd like because it's just prohibitively expensive. We do big fire, so generally we have to buy a place and burn it down. Also, I don't know if it would be that interesting to people to see a fire every week because eventually it becomes "Oh, another fire." We want to save our fires and make them real spectacular and heroic. It is a television show with a budget that we have to stay under.

FC: Who trains the actors to perform the firefighting skills correctly?

Bernero: We send them to a chopped-down version of fire school - Eddie Cibrian, the main fireman, and a new character this year, a female firefighter played by an actress named Amy Carlson. Plus all of our extras are firemen, so if the actors don't get something right, the firemen give them a whole bunch of shit anyway. They laugh and say, "Oh, Mr. Hollywood."

FC: What about from a safety angle? Is that up to the advisor?

Bernero: We are very interested in safety. When you come to one of our sets, especially when we're doing a big stunt like a car going into the water or fire or something, half the stuff is there in case something happens. We have what we call our "hero" fire trucks, which are on camera, and then we have "real" fire trucks and firemen on standby.

We have a great fire technical advisor; he's a chief in New York, Brian Dixon. Whenever we're doing fire stuff, he's on the scene. He checks our scripts and gives notes back. We have a New York paramedic technical advisor and a New York cop who work through the whole process with us writing the scripts. They are on the sets when we're doing that particular aspect. There are some things that we've gone around the corner on just to get it shot, but for the most part, we are mandated to get it right. We have changed stories to make it right.

For example, we just finished shooting an episode where there was a clog in the hose and the firefighters lost water. We [originally] wanted our main firemen character to run outside to try to fix the hose, and the ceiling would collapse on the firemen inside. Brian said to us, "Once that water stops, there would be no reason to stay." Even though it would have been a great scene, we said, "Well, we have to change it." It made sense to me.

FC: What about the show would really amaze the viewers or the emergency personnel if they knew?

Bernero: Well, one thing that has amazed me is that all of our actors have done all of their own stunts. They are raring to go! We did a scene last year where we climbed off a 10-story building down to a window eight floors below. Eddie Cibrian, who did it, and Michael Beach and Anthony Ruivivar all went to the fire school. They rapelled down the side of the building - we can't keep them from doing it. We have a great cast. None of them are pretty-boy Hollywood types, even though they are pretty. They still want to get in and do it.

A couple of them, we cannot get them to stop doing ride-alongs. In the pilot, we had them doing ride-alongs to get the feel for it, and Jason Wiles, who plays one of our cops, is practically a cop now - he won't stop doing it. This cast really cares about the professions they're portraying. They have become quite friendly with most of the people. It's been really gratifying to see.

Technical advisor Brian Dixon A 30-year fdny veteran, Bttn. Chief Brian Dixon is a department public information officer and, along with a police officer and paramedic, a technical advisor for "Third Watch." His job is to make sure that the program represents "real life" while being open to the dramatic license television requires.

FC: How did you get involved with "Third Watch"?

Dixon: When the producers first came to New York, they had to come through the deputy fire commissioner. They spoke to him, told him what they wanted to do and what access they would need, what story they wanted to tell for the fdny, nypd and ems operations.

In the beginning, I was asked to oversee it, and then they asked if I would come on board as the technical advisor. The strange thing I had to do is separate myself from [headquarters], since NBC deals with this office for equipment. I had to get away from that conflict of interest.

FC: What does a technical advisor do?

Dixon: I review the scripts to see if the terminology is correct. I try to put in terminology that's real but that the general public can understand. You try to balance it, but you try to get some reality in the language whether it's dispatch language or the language that the firefighter character would use. If a writer puts something in and I know we wouldn't do it, I suggest that they not use it, that it would not be true to the firefighters. Overall, I'm there to make sure that anything in the fire operation is correct procedurally and in a way we would do it. Still, that gets balanced with the drama, so while we make suggestions, sometimes it's driven by the drama. We try to keep it as close to reality as possible.

FC: Do you ever suggest ideas?

Dixon: I will get a lot of calls from the researchers or the writers if they have a particular question about how something would be or if something ever happened. I can draw on my experience and reach out and give them names. The writers have contacted members of this department to share their experiences also, and then use that.

The staff has been very receptive to corrections, making it close to reality yet knowing that it still is a tv show, not a documentary. This is drama, the writers put it in there, and sometimes the action may not look so real. If I notice something that we would never do, they would find a way to eliminate it.

FC: I understand that "Third Watch" is filmed in a working station.

Dixon: Yeah, they have a studio, and the writers spend some time there. They visit fire stations and talk to people in firehouses; they witness and observe. They look around and try to capture all the little things we have in the firehouse, like the blackboard with all the requests. There are people who are very particular about capturing all the little details.

We shot around a firehouse in Long Island. We gave them access, but made sure that they didn't interfere with the company, because they're still in service. We reposition them and put them on the side so they can respond quickly.

FC: How long does it take to shoot one program?

Dixon: They usually take eight to 10 days to shoot one episode. There are some 15-hour days to get it right, and it is shot out of sequence like a movie. The assistant directors will set up a schedule on what scenes to shoot and locations. It could be anywhere from a 10- to 15-hour day - that doesn't mean I'm out there all the time, but they are.

FC: What impact do you think the show has had on the viewers?

Dixon: I think for the ordinary viewer, perhaps it gives them a little more insight when they read the newspaper or see a brief clip of the news. Ed [Bernero] was a police officer, and the writers reach out to paramedics for their experiences and our firefighters for their experiences - what you've seen and how you've felt and what have been the toughest things. So I think it shows the general public that it's not just what you see on the 5 o'clock news. It can be a spectacular thing, but there are mundane parts of the job. Drama has to drive the show, but it's based on people's experiences.

FC: How do they film the fire scenes?

Dixon: Ah, the fire scenes. I think when I explain this to anyone, it's funny. Anyone in the fire service can tell we never see it reproduced correctly. It's difficult because smoke is all we see, but they can't use smoke because of the obvious health hazards for the cast and the crew. It's difficult to produce that same color smoke that makes us aware of what type of fire we have, where it's located, whether it's occupied or vacant. They cannot produce all the greens and browns and hues that trigger certain things in our minds.

[Fire] becomes very difficult for them, and it's very difficult technically to reproduce that, but they actually have in an episode where fire was supposed to roll over. ... They actually used computer graphics in one of [the scenes], and only that one time, because the drama of the show was the force that blew back out the door and rolled down the hallway.

When you see fire in the windows and all that, it's probably the special effects people, and it requires an approval by our explosive unit. They do site inspections to make sure that they've put in a flame bar or a fire box in that window, double sheetrock to prevent the fire coming in after they have burned it for awhile. Then there's always a safety engine standing by with a charged hose line whenever they use fire.

FC: Do they use clips of live fires?

Dixon: No, they haven't yet. Again, for the drama you'll see windows exploding and fire blowing out the windows or cars exploding - something like that. We know that doesn't happen all the time. It's a visual that draws the viewer in. I can stand there and say, "That doesn't really happen," but it's part of the license to allow them to make the show interesting.

FC: What have you been most impressed by?

Dixon: I would say the special effects and the stunt people: what they take on and what they're willing to go through to get that shot. To do a stunt is a tremendous amount of work. You only get one take, and they have to coordinate with the stunt people, the effects special people and all the camera angles that they need. It's like a movie shot in compressed time. What they would shoot in over two days, whether it's a stunt or special effects, would be a two-week shoot for a movie.

Another thing that really helps me is that there are a lot of firefighters who are members of the Screen Actors Guild ... so the casting agent will hire extras who are actually firefighters. It's an asset, because they know what's supposed to be done and how to act and how to look. I can take a [firefighter/actor] and say, "Crouch down - you have to play that the heat is pushing you into the ground," and they know what I'm doing.

The crew and the cast are very into getting it right. The paramedics, the firefighters, they all want to get it right. They would come up to me and ask, "Would you really do this, this way?" ... It comes down to what is going to fit the frame. I think they actually try to portray it correctly, and they don't want to make fire, police or ems look bad.