A careless worker sparks an explosive fire in a high-rise building. Station 110 leads a full alarm response, assisted by Squad 51. A triage team from Rampart Hospital, led by Dr. Brackett, sets up in a nearby garage. Several workmen and two women - including the fiancée of a paramedic - remain trapped on the 16th floor. A Coast Guard helicopter assists in rooftop evacuation; Dixie and Dr. Early take charge of the many patients at Rampart. A paramedic is injured attempting a rescue, while Gage and DeSoto extricate themselves from a broken elevator. An explosion on the 21st floor injures a fire captain, necessitating a dangerous rescue down an elevator shaft.

Squad 51 C-shift paramedics rescue a stuntman from a tower. Gage and Desoto respond to treat the injured child of a fireman's widow. A small plane and a chartered jetliner collide in midair, landing in a residential neighborhood, trapping Johnny and Roy. Station 18 leads a massive response from Battalion 14 and the Compton city fire department. Dr. Morton heads up a triage team from Rampart. Multiple rescues include passengers from both planes and people in the subdivision. Dr. Early performs brain surgery on the injured child. An elderly man's dog leads Chief McConnike to its owner.

Roy and Johnny are sent to Seattle to study the techniques used there. A skydiver jumps off the Space Needle, a worker is trapped at the top of the Kingdome, and a fuel pumper loads a ferry with gasoline instead of diesel fuel, which sets the ferry on fire in the middle of the Elliot Bay.

When Johnny and Roy are promoted to Captain, they reminisce about their years working together. Flash-back sequences include the rescue of airplane passengers after a crash-landing, a potential suicide threatening to leap from a crane tower, and a girl whose toe is stuck in a faucet

Gage and DeSoto travel to San Francisco, where they observe some topnotch women paramedics in action during major rescue missions. An injured worker is stranded on the Golden Gate bridge. Ambulance squads treat a heart attack victim at a dance bar and an epileptic at a coffee shop. A bad driver causes a traffic accident involving an ambulance carrying the heart patient, resulting in his death and five other injuries. Johnny dates a nurse interested in a long-term relationship. Careless workers and deadly chemicals combine to spark an explosive fire at a pier on the Embarcadero.