Fire Rescue campaign?

[Pursuivant]

There are more recent rescue shows, they just aren't as well-known.

Keep in mind that different types of fires have their own special hazards, especially in modern times where you might have volatile and/or toxic chemicals involved.

These days, even a typical residential fire carries a huge risk of inhalation of toxic smoke due to the large amounts of synthetic materials present in a modern building.

Modern firefighters must also learn to contain potentially dangerous situations which could result in fire and/or mass casualties. A very typical scenario is tanker truck filled with [unknown but potentially awful] jack-knifed or overturned near a built-up area. Another common scenario (at least in the US where our railroad system sucks) is a derailed train with multiple tanker cars filled with [unknown but potentially awful] which might/might not be leaking.

Add unfavorable weather conditions - like a nice hot summer day which tends to volatilize chemicals and a steady breeze which pushes toxic chemicals and smoke towards an inhabited area - and you've got a firefighter's nightmare.

As a variation on the police procedural, you could have a campaign which focuses on fire investigators, who look at fire scenes after the fact to determine what and whodunnit.

Finally, while a Rescue/911 (or 999, or whatever) campaign might be great fun, I could see a risk of it devolving into "incident of the week" which could get boring. In that case, you need an overarching theme to the campaign - like catching a serial arsonist or out-competing a rival fire company. You could also set the campaign in a society where EMS, firefighters, and police are all under a unified command, like the Imperial Roman Vigiles.

[whswhs]

Just as a side note, I've played for years with the idea of a utopian campaign, meaning one in the utopian genre and/or exploring a utopian setting. This type of rescue campaign would be one of the best possible fits to such a setting.