Doug goes to see Carol early in the morning, but she isn't home. Dr. Corday is going on her paramedic ride along. They tell her that she can only observe. They end up at a burning chemical warehouse where there are over twenty victims. Corday risks her life to save a man trapped in the ruble. Dewey, the paramedic, goes with her. Carol sees Doug and he asks her where she was. She tells him that she had an early morning meeting and she wants to know if he is checking up on her. A little eight-year-old girl is brought in by her babysitter with the Ecoli bacteria infection and will need dialysis. Her name is Sophie and Doug and Carol tend to her. Elizabeth and Dewey finally reach the man that is trapped in the chemical building. His name is Leo Lepziger and his arm is trapped under some of the debris. Dr. Corday is able to get an IV of morphine in him to ease his pain. She had to put the IV in his neck, because she wasn't able to get anywhere else. She does not want him to lose his arm. They lube Leo up hoping that they can slide him out from the ruble, but that does not help. The building is still collapsing and making things more difficult for them. Another explosion happens and the captain tells Dewey that he and Corday need to come back. Corday tells him that she is not going to leave the victim. Dewey goes back and returns with some more equipment. Corday gets the man out of the building right before it collapses. Jerry tells Dr. Weaver about the warehouse fire. He tells her that the paramedics are bringing in six minor patients with burns and lacerations. Weaver tends to a man who passes out at a breakfast meeting. His name is Jack Arteburn. She does an EKG and sees that he had a heart attack. Kerry wants to do more tests, but he wants to see his regular doctor. A lot of contaminated patients are brought in and it causes chaos. Carter is doing his ophthalmology rotation. He is not really sure of what he is doing. He tends to a retired science teacher named Dr. George Bikel, who smells the Benzene. He tells Carter that he check out where it is coming from. The chemical is highly toxic and dangerous. One of the workers brings in three of his coworkers in and they are covered in Benzene.  Dr. Weaver goes to tend to one of them and she passes out. She begins to have a seizure, so Carter, Anna and Jeanie tend to her. When she comes to, she is disoriented and Carter has to take charge. Jerry tries to locate the disaster manual, but cannot find it. Carter tries to get all of the staff and patients to calm down. He sends all of the staff and patients who are contaminated or possibly contaminated to the ambulance bay. He then sends everyone else to the hospital cafeteria. Kerry is brought up to the cafeteria and is rolled over beside her patient Arteburn. She has no idea of who he even is. Her patient tells her what has happened and she can't believe it. She wants to help, but she is unable to. Arteburn isn't doing very well and he crashes. Carter and Anna tend to him. Carter puts the patient's head in some cold ice water. This causes his diving reflex to slow down his irregular heartbeat. Corday makes it back to the ER with Dewey. They have to go up the cafeteria with the other patients who were not contaminated. Dr. Romano doesn't think that Leo's arm can be salvaged, but Corday wants to try anyway. Doug convinces Sophie's mother that she needs the dialysis. The workers from Haz-mat have come to decontaminate the ER. Chief Dannaker is in charge of the clean up. He does not want anyone entering or leaving the ER without a protective suit. A representative from operations comes and asks Carter why they didn't move the patients to physical therapy. Her name is Harriet Spooner and she tells him that he should have followed the disaster manual. She places Carter in charge of the ER. Doug and Carol go to take their young patient to pediatrics. They go to the elevator and don't have room for the patient and the dialysis machine. Doug, Carol and Sophie get on an elevator and they put the machine on the other. Carol and Doug get trapped in the elevator with the little girl. She only has a few minutes of oxygen available. The girl's potassium level is getting really high, but Doug doesn't have any of the supplies that he needs. Sophie is still in need of some oxygen. Doug is able to get the doors opened, with some help, and is able to save the little girl before she ran out of oxygen. Corday and Romano operate on her patient's arm. Carter goes in to the hazardous area to treat a patient. He is now contaminated.  Carter now has to be decontaminated.  Carter sees that a patient of his died. He feels like he was too involved with what is going on in the ER, that he neglected his elderly patient, Inga. Anna tells him that he has done everything he could. The patient was going to die anyway. Romano and Elizabeth are not able to save it and this upsets Dr. Corday. She sees Peter and he checks out her eye that she hurt at the scene of the building collapse. Peter tells her that he will be off later on and they can get together. Sophie has improved tremendously and she tells her mother that Doug and Carol took good care of her. Doug and Carol leave Sophie alone with her mother. Carol tells Doug that she was not upset earlier that morning about him checking up on her. They cautiously get back on the elevator to head down to the ER. The workers have finished with the decontamination and the patients are allowed to go back in to the ER. Everyone praises him for a job well done, except for Kerry. She feels much better now and is ready to take the ER back over. Carter steps outside and thanks Chief Dannaker for all that he has done. He tells Carter about what a terrific job he did covering the ER and tending to the needs of the patients. He is surprised when he learns that Carter is only an intern. Mark has returned from his trip and Carter fills him in on what has happened.

Reviewed by Tony Conner on 10-02-2000