In Season 9 of Chicago Fire, the cast and crew were prepared for one of the show’s most daring rescue sequences yet—a dramatic warehouse blaze where Joe Cruz, played by Joe Minoso, rappels through collapsing scaffolding to save a trapped child. It was meant to be the emotional centerpiece of the episode. But what happened during filming changed everything.
As the cameras rolled, Minoso took his mark and launched into the stunt. He was strapped into a harness, meant to drop just six feet onto a padded landing area. But a misfire in the rigging system caused the drop line to release too early—and he plummeted over ten feet onto a concrete section of the set.
The impact was immediate and brutal. Filming stopped in an instant. A paramedic on set rushed to his side. “He wasn’t moving at first,” a crew member recalled. “We thought we’d lost him.” Minoso was unconscious for several terrifying seconds before regaining consciousness—but he was in severe pain and disoriented.
He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where scans revealed a fractured collarbone, a partially torn ligament in his shoulder, and a mild concussion. The production went into crisis mode. The rest of the episode was paused indefinitely, and scripts for the following episodes—many of which centered around Cruz—were pulled for emergency rewrites.
Showrunner Derek Haas later revealed just how close they were to losing the actor for the season. “It was a real moment of fear for us—not just because we love Joe, but because his character was about to go through a major arc,” he said. “We were planning a storyline involving fatherhood, PTSD, and a life-threatening moral dilemma.”
That arc had to be postponed. In its place, the writers inserted a temporary storyline about Cruz being assigned to desk duty after a “bad call.” Most fans didn’t realize the change wasn’t part of the plan—but behind the scenes, it was a scramble to keep the show moving.
Minoso’s recovery took nearly eight weeks. Despite warnings from doctors to take it slow, he returned to filming in a modified role—wearing an arm brace under his turnout gear and avoiding heavy stunts. “I didn’t want to let anyone down,” he later said. “But more than that, I didn’t want to lose this character I love so much.”
His return episode—ironically centered on Cruz overcoming trauma after a rescue goes wrong—resonated more deeply than anyone expected. “It felt real because it was,” said Christian Stolte (Mouch). “We were all scared for him. And when he walked back onto that set, it meant everything.”
Since then, new safety protocols have been put in place on Chicago Fire. All harness stunts are now rehearsed twice, with separate rigging inspections. And Minoso? He’s still going strong—but he admits he thinks twice before agreeing to a major stunt. “I’ve done my fall,” he jokes. “Now it’s someone else’s turn.”
