‘9-1-1’ Preview: Bobby & the 118 Lead a Tricky Rescue After an Oil-Well Explosion

Be on the Front Line

For exclusive news and updates, subscribe to our 9-1-1 Newsletter:

Holey moly, Los Angeles really is the pits this season! Not only has NBC’s La Brea opened up a massive sinkhole in the middle of the City of Angels, but now Fox’s first-responder drama has an epic fissure to deal with.

“It was just a funny coincidence,” says co-showrunner Kristen Reidel with a laugh. Instead of a portal back to prehistoric times, the 9-1-1 disaster is caused by an underground oil-well explosion that craters a downtown L.A. street—swallowing a woman taking her driving test. “Our inspiration here was really, have you ever wished the earth would open up and swallow you whole? OK, now, what if it did?”

Related

What '9-1-1's Update About Chimney & Maddie May Mean for Their Future

The rescue efforts led by LAFD Capt. Bobby Nash (Peter Krause, above) will be tricky, Reidel adds. “Because the oil well is now active, you’re not just pulling people out of a wrecked car,” she says. “[They’re] trying to do it in incredibly slick conditions while also avoiding making any sparks because the air is full of methane.”

And although we won’t see any birds from the Pleisto-cene epoch flying out of the sinkhole, Reidel jokes that the episode may still scare some viewers. “We don’t have any creatures, but it does start at the DMV, which I think for a lot of people inspires a different kind of terror.”

9-1-1, Mondays, 8/7c, Fox