I just found out these 9-1-1 plots were inspired by real-life accidents (including Chimney's rebar storyline in Season 1)

Ryan Murphy's 9-1-1 has never shied away from including crazy emergencies, which put the 118 in a tight spot.

And while the procedural has not resorted to Final Destination levels yet, it has featured a fair share of crazy emergencies. And as hard as it might be to believe, I just found out that many of these were inspired by (bizarre) real-life accidents.

Murphy has also shared his inspiration for 9-1-1 after first responders efficiently saved his 11-month-old son, who stopped breathing one night. While the incident was truly horrific for him, it inspired him to create a series on first responders, and the rest is history.

In addition to the inspiration for the show, the creator also took real-life accidents and featured them on 9-1-1 (and they are the ones you least expect).

More on this in our story.

I just found out that the craziest emergencies in 9-1-1 are inspired by real-life

While I was hooked on 9-1-1 from the first episode, I always thought the emergencies were a little too over the top. However, passing them off as creative decisions, I moved on to binge-watching the show until I found out that some of the craziest emergencies featured on the show are inspired by real life.

Throughout its eight seasons, the show has featured many intense and high-stakes emergencies, effectively controlled by the first responders team.

In a 2018 interview with Bustle, executive producer Tim Minear revealed how some of the craziest plots are inspired by real life:

''I will say, there are in the first five episodes at least five things that you will say, 'Mmm, I don't believe it,' that were all based on something that's true.''

Starting strong, the 9-1-1 premiere featured a baby stuck in a washroom pipe, and while that scene was difficult to watch, it was inspired by a real-life incident in China. Just like Bobby and his team saved the day, the baby was rescued in real life too. Remembering this incident, executive producer Alexis Martin Woodall revealed:

"[Creator] Ryan [Murphy] had heard about the baby in the wall from a YouTube clip in China and it actually happened. Isn't it shocking?"

This incident in China inspired Murphy, and he premiered his procedural 9-1-1 with this emergency.

In addition, the one storyline that I thought had to be fake was Chimney's rebar in Season 1 Episode 3. The show took a bold choice by harming one of their own right in the third episode, but it eventually became the most popular story, giving Chimney a heroic scar.

In Episode 3, Chimney was involved in a brutal car accident, where a metal rebar was shoved through his skull, but luckily, he survived. If (like me), you also thought that this was exaggerated, there are at least two known cases where people were involved in a similar accident and survived.

The most famous case is that of Phineas Gage, who had a metal rod stuck into his brain while working on the railroad in 1848. The doctors successfully operated on him, and he made a full recovery, like Chimney.

Enough with these harrowing emergencies because 9-1-1 also has its fair share of humour, like the car shop call, where a man was trapped in the car wash brush and needed help getting out. After Buck, Bobby and Hen saved the man, they saw him getting trapped on the video and had a good laugh (it was actually funny).

This funny emergency was also inspired by a viral video, and did rounds on social media. In the video, the man was trapped in the car wash brush and was spinning round. It had many likes on the Internet, and that's probably how it ended with the procedural's creators.

In addition, other bizarre emergencies like a python choking a man, a bouncy house flying in the air and people getting trapped in tanning beds were also taken from real-life accidents, which makes the show even more realistic.

9-1-1 is streaming on Hulu.

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Also Read: 9-1-1 is inspired by a real-life emergency faced by Ryan Murphy

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