Revealing mistake: The fire engine often shows up on the scene without any hose in the hosebed (on back of the truck).

Backdraft (1991)
1 revealing mistake
Directed by: Ron Howard
Starring: Robert De Niro, Donald Sutherland, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Scott Glenn, William Baldwin
Visible crew/equipment: When Brian is coming up the lawn to the back door to visit Helen, you can see Ron Howard and the film crew clearly reflected on the back door window.
Ronald Bartel: The funny thing about firemen is... Night and day they are always firemen.
Question: The guy who took the picture of Brian as a kid - was he an opportunist who sold the photo to the magazine? I have a hard time imagining they would be prescient enough to know to send one of their own photographers to the scene of the fire.
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Answer: Local photographer could have been monitoring emergency calls. A fire is a big visual, and the photo sold to a wire service or Life directly.