Continuity mistake: At the apartment complex fire, after Truck 82 sets its outriggers, Engine 28 is right behind them with their supply line and duals laid out, but quite a few shots later Engine 28 is just pulling up behind 82, even though they were already there all set up.
Continuity mistake: During the fire at the apartment complex, when Cap talks to dispatch over the HT and requests a second alarm, we see Roy put up that first ladder, but after the Pasadena engine arrives, Roy's just putting up that first ladder. Second, after Engine 82 extends their outriggers, it cuts to the flames and we see that three ladders are already against the building, but then there are only two up - the third will go up a few shots later (when Roy reaches the balcony) Third, we see Roy start climbing the ladder that's farther from the camera (the one Johnny's holding), but when Roy reaches the balcony, he's climbing up the ladder that's closer to the camera.
Continuity mistake: When Station 51 is dispatched to 'plane crash into a structure' the address is given as 1145 Delmar Drive, but when they arrive at the apartment complex, the 3-storey structure's address is 775.
Continuity mistake: When Herbert is leaving the station, there are shots of him on the left edge of the bay doorway, but in the shots of the guys looking at Herbert, particularly Chet and Marco who are standing in front of the squad, it's as if Herbert is crawling around towards the center of the bay doorway - their eye contact is way off.
Continuity mistake: After leaving the football player who kicked in his TV screen, as Roy and John put the gear back in the squad, we see the old blue set of the Datascope 850 monitor and defibrillator, and not their current Datascope M/D2 white case. The last time the blue two-piece unit is even seen in the squad is in 4x13, "Parade", and the first time the white unit is used is in 4x15, "Transition", and it's then used in all following episodes. This scene was a prior taping, that was inserted into this end of the season episode.
Continuity mistake: When Brackett tells Dixie about the visiting administrators she's holding a clipboard, but when she's stopped by the man whose son has an arm injury, Dixie's now holding a brown folder.
Continuity mistake: When the cardiac patient is finally brought to the ER, and goes into full arrest number four, he's wheeled into treatment 1 which does not have a window on its door, but in the next shot from inside the room the door has a window, and when they're defibbing him, we can see the nurses' station outside the door, which means he's now in treatment 3, not 1.
Continuity mistake: When Mrs. Evans complains to Dixie that she's been waiting two hours to have her cigarette burn taken care of, in her closeups her handbag strap is over her shoulder, but in wide shots her handbag is hanging from her arm.
Continuity mistake: Roy and Johnny are at the nurses' station discussing the problem of non-emergency calls for paramedics, then it cuts to Dixie in the waiting room, when a nurse asks Dixie if the ER can take a pediatric patient who needs treatment immediately, and Dixie tells her to go to Morton in treatment 3. Then when Dixie speaks to Mrs. Evans we see that young girl being brought to treatment 3. During the next two minutes while Dix walks up the hallway, she quickly speaks to Brackett, then to an impatient parent, then to that nurse again, then Brackett again, and finally to Roy. When Roy asks Dixie where Johnny is, Dixie tells him in treatment 3 (dubious how she would even know that fact), and when Roy walks in to get Johnny that pediatric patient who was just brought to treatment 3 is not in there, instead Morton is examining Wild Bill.
Continuity mistake: After Johnny and Roy get back to the station and find Bill, who's filling in for Chet, in the kitchen cooking Chet's awful stew recipe, the tones drop and Squad 51 is dispatched to "man unconscious." Just as the bay door opens we can see Engine 51 parked in the bay, but when the squad heads down the driveway the engine's now gone. This presents another problem, because if the footage shows the engine gone, then why is Bill still at the station cooking stew instead of being with the rest of the engine company?
Continuity mistake: While Johnny and Roy are driving in the squad, they're dispatched to an 'unknown type rescue', and when they arrive at the incident which is a football player who kicked in his TV screen, Roy's hair is much shorter - note the front and sideburns. Then back in the squad it's the same length as earlier.
Continuity mistake: When Roy and Johnny are leaving the home of the football player who kicked in his TV screen, in the interior shot as they're walking out, Roy has a stethoscope around his neck and is holding the Biophone with his right hand and drug box with his left. In the next exterior shot, the stethoscope is gone and the drug box and Biophone have switched hands.
Continuity mistake: At the start of shift, after Captain Stanley gives the guys assignments, when the last shift rolls up in the squad, in the closeups Roy is suddenly holding his helmet while he and Johnny are talking to Dwyer, but it's gone again in the wide shot. When the squad is dispatched, Roy grabs his helmet which had been lying on the engine's running board in all the wide shots.
Continuity mistake: After the OD is dropped off and left at the ER, during her examination Brackett finds the marks on her foot, and in the closeup the marks have moved and are more pronounced than in the wide shots.
Continuity mistake: After the ambulance is involved in a traffic accident, when Marco shows up in Squad 51, he parks it parallel to a blue pickup truck and gets out of the squad, but in the next shot that pickup has suddenly vanished and the squad is now parked beside the sidewalk.
Continuity mistake: In the waiting room, after Mrs. Evans complains that she's been waiting in the ER for two hours, Dixie walks up the hallway to Brackett, who's beside treatment 1, but after Brackett tells her about the visiting administrators, Dixie walks away headed toward the nurses' station. Yet in the next shot, Dixie is back at the opposite end of the hallway, by the waiting room, as she heads up the hallway before the man walks in with his injured son.
Continuity mistake: When the dispatcher sends Squad 51 on an 'unknown type rescue', the address is given as 2608, but when they're at the house the address is 4654.
Continuity mistake: When the Animal Control guys are dispatched to the fire in the canyon, the rearview mirror in their vehicle vanishes in the close-ups.
Continuity mistake: When Brackett is first on the line with the vet, there's a closeup of Early checking the goat's heartbeat and we see the baby goat has been intubated. Brackett informs the vet of the goat's heart condition, so the vet tells Brackett to mask him with halothane and intubate. Then a minute goes by before the vet says that they should have him intubated by now, and when Brackett gets back on the line he says that the animal's intubated, even though we saw the animal already intubated in the closeup right at the start.
Continuity mistake: After the Bengal tiger jumps on Les, the feline walks up the aisle that is directly in front of the self-serve ice cream freezer, and knocks over the pyramid of Hi-C cans that block the aisle, but a few shots later the tiger walks up that same aisle (note the ice cream freezer), and the mess of Hi-C cans have vanished.
Answer: It is standard practice to wet down driveways so that they stand out in a long shot.
stiiggy