Fact1: Firefighter Jack Morrison saves man 's life in massive four-alarm fire in 20-story concrete grain elevator/warehouse in Canton waterfront neighborhood of Baltimore, Fact2: series of flashbacks showing how Jack joined fire department at supermarket with woman relationship with children and bonds and trials and tribulations Interspersed with are current rescue efforts, Fact3: Jack becomes close friends with fellow firefighters including Mike, Fact4: Jack 's first fire takes place at burning vacant rowhouse, Fact5: Jack 's fellow firefighters Back at become determined to rescue him grain building fire
Output: Firefighter Jack Morrison Joaquin Phoenix saves a mans life in a massive fouralarm fire in a 20story concrete grain elevatorwarehouse in the Canton waterfront neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. However the grain being stored in the warehouse explodes, causing Jack to fall through several floors and break his leg. The film follows the efforts of the other men in his unit, Ladder Company 49, led by the commands of Deputy Chief Mike Kennedy John Travolta, Jacks longtime mentor, to rescue him while Morrison tries to reach a safe area of the burning structure. Interspersed with the current rescue efforts are a series of flashbacks showing how Jack joined the fire department, his first meeting at a supermarket with the woman who would eventually become his wife Jacinda Barrett, his relationship with his children, and the bonds he formed and the trials and tribulations he endured with his fellow firefighters. After graduating from the fire academy, Jack is sent to work on Baltimore City Fire Department BCFD Engine Company 33, in the busiest firehouse in the city. Quartered with Engine 33 is Ladder Company 49. On Engine 33, Jack learns the ropes of firefighting. He quickly becomes close friends with his fellow firefighters, including Mike, his Captain at the time. Jacks first fire takes place at a burning vacant rowhouse. Engine 33 and Ladder 49 respond and are the first companies on the scene. Jack and Mike enter the building with a hose line and tackle the blaze, with Jack on the nozzle of the hose. They quickly and triumphantly extinguish it. After some time working on Engine 33, Jack arrives at the scene of another vacant rowhouse fire, where a fellow firefighter from Ladder 49, Dennis Gauquin Billy Burke, dies after falling through a roof of the building. Jack decides, although it is more dangerous, to take his friends position as a truckie, a search and rescue member on Ladder 49 by transferring to the Truck. As the years go by, Jack suffers some traumatic experiences, including rescuing a man from the ledge of a burning highrise building in Downtown Baltimore, and witnessing another friend and fellow firefighter from Ladder 49, Tommy Drake Morris Chestnut, suffer severe burns following a steam explosion at an industrial building who continues firefighting even after sustaining such a terrible injury. He finds the work rewarding, but his wife initially worries about his safety and opposes the change. However, she eventually accepts his new role and even talks him out of taking an administrative position that Mike, who has now become a Deputy Chief, offers him. One Christmas Eve, Jack and the members of Engine 33 and Ladder 49 respond to a burning apartment building. Jack is able to rescue a young girl trapped in an engulfed apartment, but is briefly trapped himself before being rescued by a fellow Firefighter from Ladder 49, Leonard Lenny Richter Robert Patrick. Both men receive the departments Medal of Valor for their actions. Back at the grain building fire that opened the film, Jacks fellow firefighters become extremely determined to rescue him, and Jack does his best to reach the only possible safe area Mike tells him about. However, upon reaching that room he sees that the only exit is cut off by raging flames and, out of air and with the heat intensifying, Jack realizes his situation is hopeless. He radios Mike to pull his men back, so no one else will be hurt while trying to rescue him. Mike reluctantly agrees, and Jack accepts his fate to die in the fire, devastating Mike. At Jacks funeral, Mike delivers an emotional eulogy in celebration of Jacks life, which inspires a standing ovation from friends and family in attendance. Jacks body is then carried to his resting place, with full honors, on the back of Engine 33 in a typical firemans funeral procession. The film ends with Mike and the guys en route to a call while the former flashes back to Jack and his fellow firefighters going to fires and a final shot of Mike and Jack coming out of Jacks first ever burning building in triumph.