When almost the entire crew of Fire House 126 in Austin, Texas, is wiped out in a fertilizer storage explosion during a fire, Owen Strand of the NYFD is offered the command of the station to rebuild it with an eye for a more diverse crew than the state is typically known to encourage. Despite his early-stage cancer condition and his son's own serious troubles, Strand decides to accept the post. With his sophistication and his ideals in play, Strand assembles a seemingly motley crew of firefighters to handle the various emergencies in his operating area while living with the idiosyncrasies that go with Texas.