Captain Spike Ryerson and his firefighters successfully rescue a suicidal person with a net, only to be immediately dispatched to a fire in an office building. There, they find two window washers stranded on the roof and six employees trapped in an elevator on the 23rd floor, where the fire is centered. Myers and Caputo attempt to reach the elevator, but Caputo is incapacitated by smoke. Simultaneously, Ryerson and Dalzell arrive by helicopter, rescue the window washers, and discover the only access point to the fire is via the window washing scaffold.
The firemen work to save a bedridden man buried alive in a mudslide, and battle a blaze started by convicts at a state prison.