At one point in our lives, we’ve all crossed paths with a real life super hero, someone who has helped us out of a situation we couldn’t get out of on our own.

Whether it was a doctor, a police officer, a paramedic or a firefighter – most of us have needed their assistance at one time or another. Although we’re more than happy to know these heroes are there, we don’t want to need them.

Global’s new firefighter drama, Chicago Fire, is cranking up the heat with it’s hot ensemble cast and scenes so real and intense, viewers will be hungry for more.

Led by Dick Wolf and his high calibre creative team, Chicago Fire offers an inside look at the lives of these real life heroes – heroes who risk their lives every minute of every day to save people stuck in life or death circumstances.

David Eigenberg stars on Global’s new firefighter drama Chicago Fire. Photo by Sandy Caetano.

After watching the first episode, it’s clear how remarkable these men and women really are. It gives you a better understanding for what these firefighters and first responders (paramedics) do on a daily basis.

Though Chicago Fire is a complete work of fiction, it touches on situations and emotions real firefighters must cope with while on and off the job.

“We’re working side by side with actual real firefighters – we get to ask these guys what they would do in certain situations, how they would act and feel, and they tell us what its like,” says David Eigenberg, who plays Christopher Herrmann.

Eigenberg (Sex and the City) and the rest of the cast, including Jesse Spencer (House) and Taylor Kinney (Vampire Diaries), get to ask the real firefighters, who are on set alongside them, whatever they need to make each scene seem believable. And believable it is. Eigenberg says he even got advice on how to walk up a ladder, vital information he definitely appreciated.

“There’s actually hand positions and if you’re hugging the ladder 100 feet up and you’ve got your elbows bent all the way to your biceps, people are going to know that you’re frightened,” he says. “So you have to straighten your arms, and try not to look so terrified – but it’s hard not to be scared.”

The cast of Chicago Fire are thrown into real situations, which have included fiery car wrecks and real burning buildings. They’ve even had fireballs about 10 feet in circumference thrown so close to them they could feel the hair on their sideburns singe.

Not being scared while filming these scenes for the firefighter drama is the most challenging for Eigenberg, who also admits it was difficult to trust his team to pull him safely out of a hole in the floor of a smokey, fiery building by a harness. Meanwhile, all he could do besides swear, was hope and pray they didn’t drop him back in.

“Not being terrified is the toughest. It’s called mugging, you just mug it,” says Eigenberg. “There’s no working through it, you just go and try to make your face look like you know what you’re doing and you mask that terror.”

Photo by Sandy Caetano.

The one thing Eigenberg hopes they can convey through Chicago Fire is how real these men and women are, how real their connection is to each other, and what it means to them when they save a life.

“I have seen firefighters in real life bring out people from fires and they’re not smiling, but they look back at the firefighters in a way that never makes it to the news,” says Eigenberg. “It’s a connection that they share after having just saved a life.”

“Firefighters are real people, they’re really grounded in their lives, they know and really appreciate the whole scope of life,” he continues. “They have a great sense of humour – but they are amazing human beings and they go above and beyond, and a lot of that became really apparent in doing this show.”

Catch the premiere of Chicago Fire tonight on Global at 10 p.m.