Visible crew/equipment: At the structure fire, right after Captain Stanley and Roy throw the rope down to Johnny and the boy, and Cap tells Marco to use fog, in the next overhead shot as the guys use the axe on the partition fire, at the right side of the screen we can see a crew member wearing a short sleeve grey T-shirt, who's standing at the stairway landing right outside the door, as he's using the FX smoke/fog machine which is blowing smoke through the doorway.
Other mistake: When Tommy's on the ledge, and Roy and John are on the aerial ladder, just as Tommy jumps off the ledge and Roy catches him, we can see the young actor happy and grinning as he's being caught by Kevin Tighe, but within the very serious storyline of a 7 year old boy jumping from a ledge, looking "empty, tired and giving up", this doesn't fit. Obviously the young actor thought it was great fun to do a stunt like that.
Other mistake: At the fire, while they're searching for the missing boy, Marco feels the partition for heat and shouts to Captain Stanley, "Hey, Cap! Cap!" but the subtitles read, "Hey, Chet! Chet!" Then after the boy's rescue, we hear the Battalion Chief say, "LA, this fire's contained. All copy. Out 1 hour," but subtitles read "Talk 1 hour." Subtitles from Universal Studios 2010 DVD.
Other mistake: At the start of this episode Squad 51 heads out to the construction site with the screaming woman, and Roy and John are in their full turnout gear, which means they've just spent the night at the station and it's early morning at the end of their 24-hr shift, yet back at the station Roy and John are getting into their uniform at the start of their shift, which is 8:00AM. Joanne Worley's screaming segment was filmed for an earlier episode, but was inserted into this episode.
Other mistake: On site with the boy on the ledge, when Truck 85 raises the aerial ladder Roy stands by and waits to go up with Johnny behind him. Both Roy and Johnny are the only ones not wearing their turnouts, and both of their watches are on their left wrists, but when 85's aerial apparatus operator says "Desoto, up the aerial," the bare arm we see beside him is wearing the watch on his right wrist. This is not a flipped shot.
Other mistake: When Roy and John are examining the boy who jumped from the ledge, they're standing at the back of Engine 85 while the boy's sitting on the tailboard, and we can see behind his head the vinyl material with the imprinted 85, covering the attached plate with the real company number.
Other mistake: When Tommy is in the treatment room drinking chocolate milk, the container of milk has tape wrapped around it, so the brand name would not be visible. Later at the station, when Chet is polishing the table in the kitchen, the spray can he's using has tape wrapped around it as well, for the same reason.
Visible crew/equipment: After Mrs. Mannering walks over to Dixie and asks about her son, when she and Dixie head to Brackett's office, the outline of the lav mic transmitter is visible on the back of Dixie's uniform, and a bulge is also noticeable on the back of Mrs. Mannering's sweater.
Continuity mistake: When Tommy's in the treatment room, drinking chocolate milk and playing with the Lincoln Logs, the building he's putting together changes significantly between the two side shots and the shot facing him.
Continuity mistake: When Roy and Johnny are climbing the aerial ladder to get to the boy on the ledge, in the overhead long shot we see down below that the Biophone and drug box are placed on the ground, right beside 85's captain. Then later, after the boy tries to jump, the captain instructs one of his men to go get the paramedics' Biophone and drug box, even though we saw them already placed there awhile ago.
Continuity mistake: After rescuing the young boy from the structure fire, when Roy and Johnny are stopped by a reporter with a camera crew and asked questions, the boy is standing behind Roy, then between shots the boy is standing in front of Roy.
Audio problem: When Truck 85 raises the aerial ladder so Roy can get to the boy on the ledge, the aerial apparatus operator tells Roy, "DeSoto, up the ladder," and we hear Roy respond, "Okay, Cap." There are two problems here: first, Roy's mouth movements are not in sync with what we hear, and second, Roy is not responding to 85's captain, he's responding to the aerial apparatus operator. The captain is standing on the ground behind Truck 85.
Continuity mistake: At the structure fire with the trapped young boy, when Johnny and Roy enter the building Johnny's SCBA tank is all yellow - no stickers, and Roy's tank has a white sticker and a red sticker, but in the following shots looking for the boy until they exit the building, their tanks keep on changing.
Answer: It is standard practice to wet down driveways so that they stand out in a long shot.
stiiggy