I remember seeing this movie when it came out in 1973. I believe it was a made for TV film, but it had better production values than the usual made for TV fare.
Just watched it again for the first time in over 30 years last night. I got it on one of those cheap DVDs you find at the dollar store.
Firehouse starts of interesting enough. With some John Carpenter horror movie synthesizer music and heartbeats pounding, we see fire starters setting an urban building ablaze. The city fire department arrives shortly thereafter. The firefighting scenes were grainy and realistic. They may have been real firefighters, but I am not sure.
From here, we are introduced to the firefighters at a particular station. Led by Captain Parr (Andrew Duggan), we meet Spike (Vince Edwards), Hank (Richard Jaeckel), and Sonny (Val Avery). Another fireman, Eddie, dies in the blaze that begins the movie. Spike is a bigot who blames the fire on blacks and the others go along with him.
Meanwhile, Shelly Forsythe (Richard Roundtree) is the first black to join the station. He is a "probbie". Shelly is reluctant to join the fire department and gets into an argument with his wife, who threatens to leave him if he doesn't join.
Racial tensions develop as soon as Shelly arrives. Spike makes it difficult for him. The captain is spineless (in once seen he gives Spike an order and Spike replies "Don't tell me what to do.") and tells Shelly just to ignore the verbal abuse.
Some of the racial issues are stereotyped and clichéd. I thought it was unrealistic that a large city would not have hired any black firemen by 1973. And I doubt if Spike's behavior was realistic. His hostility toward Shelly should have gotten him fired, but everyone called him a hero so they looked the other way.
