The Fire

"The Fire" is the fourth episode of the second season of The Office and the 10th overall. It was written by B.J. Novak and directed by Ken Kwapis. It first aired on October 11, 2005. It was viewed by 7.6 million people.

Cold open
Pam transfers a call from Katy to Jim's desk and the two make lunch plans. Pam seems both frazzled and a bit jealous at the same time after the documentary crews ask her about Jim and Katy's relationship.

Summary
Michael gives Ryan a glowing checkpoint review. When Ryan expresses his interest in starting his own business someday, Michael takes it upon himself to teach Ryan the first of the ten rules of business. The fire alarm sounds, and while Dwight and Angela both attempt to take charge of the evacuation, Michael pushes others out of the way in his escape out of the building.

In a talking head interview, Ryan explains that he doesn't want to have a nickname or be known for anything at the office. Once everyone is safely outside, Jim begins a game of "three books on a desert island". At Dwight's turn, he misses the point of the exercise and asks for an axe and a hollowed-out book filled with survival gear.

Jim changes the topic from books to DVDs. In a joint talking head interview, Jim and Pam mock Meredith's choices, although Pam admits that she too likes Legally Blonde. Jim teases Pam for liking that movie.

Michael learns that Ryan is going to business school at night. Michael invites Ryan to quiz him but doesn't even understand the first question. In a talking head interview, Michael explains that he learned more about business from working at a fast-food restaurant than Ryan will ever learn in school. Dwight, still jealous of the attention Ryan is getting from Michael, attempts to bully the young employee but merely earns a scolding from Michael. Ryan becomes increasingly uncomfortable with Michael's friendliness. Jim moves on to the next game, "Who would you do?", and Kevin instantly responds, "Pam." Jim and Pam excuse themselves from the game to talk to Dwight, who is moping in his car. Pam suggests that Ryan would be impressed to learn that Dwight is a volunteer sheriff's deputy, and Jim tries to keep a straight face when he suggests that Dwight quit, "and then that would stick it to both of them." Dwight thanks them for their concern but asks to be left alone.

Jim, Pam, Michael, Ryan and even Roy join the game of "Who would you do?". Roy answers, "that tight-ass Christian chick." Jim jokingly chooses Kevin, and Michael says, "Well, I would definitely have sex with Ryan." When Michael mentions that he left his cell phone in the office, Dwight rushes back into the building to fetch it.

The women of the office continue playing "Who would you do?" Meredith: "Jim." Phyllis: "Definitely Jim." Kelly: "Definitely, definitely Jim." Pam considers her response and says, "Oscar's kind of cute." She also mentions that Toby is cute and the others groan in disapproval, except for Meredith, who nods and smiles. Michael asks Ryan to call his cell phone to help Dwight find it. The phone rings from Michael's pocket. Michael is worried for Dwight when he emerges, coughing, from the building and reveals that the fire was started by Ryan, who left a cheese pita in the toaster-oven set to "oven" instead of "toaster". Dwight and Michael proceed to mock Ryan and dub him The Fire Guy. Dwight sings a memorable song about Ryan, based on the song "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel.

Katy arrives for lunch and joins the DVD game. Her first movie is Legally Blonde.

With the fire out, everybody heads back inside. Michael promises Ryan, "I'll give you the rest of the ten tomorrow."

Deleted scenes
The Season Two DVD contains a number of deleted scenes from this episode. Notable cut scenes include:


 * Jim sees a weather report of "70 and clear" on Pam's computer screen and is surprised when she tells him that is the current weather in Scranton. He then attempts to look out a window to see this, until realising there are no windows in the office.
 * Several brief talking head interviews with Dwight, in which he confirms his position as Number Two behind Michael, admits to writing a book about Michael until Michael made him stop, and considers Michael's new friendship with Ryan.
 * Michael and Dwight try to develop the list of ten pieces of business advice he promised to give Ryan.
 * Dwight awkwardly tries to befriend Ryan.
 * Kevin does some accounting and chuckles when he reaches the number 69.
 * Talking-head interviews outside:
 * Jim and Pam talk about how great it was when the teacher held class outside.
 * Angela talks about how smoothly the building evacuation went, then breaks down crying.
 * Alternate take of Michael justifying why he left the building first.
 * Jim explains that he and Toby used to sit together, but Michael moved them because they talked too much.
 * Michael describes the jobs he held when he was Ryan's age.
 * Toby and Kevin list their five favorite movies.
 * Ryan tells Jim that his investment in business school is "worth it," with the implication that it would allow him to quit his job at Dunder Mifflin.
 * In a talking head interview, Michael gives a rambling answer to the question "If you could change the life of one person, who would it be?".

Trivia

 * Michael running out of the burning building, pushing shoving everyone out of his way, is somewhat similar to a Seinfeld episode, also titled "The Fire", where George Costanza starts pushing and shoving everyone out of his path when he hears a fire has started.
 * With the exception of the talking head interviews, most of the episode takes place outside because of the fire.
 * The fire in the kitchen was hot enough to apparently dry Dwight's shirt from the point he is dragging Kelly away to the following moment where he crawls to safety.
 * The song "Ryan Started the Fire" is based off the song "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel.
 * When playing Desert Island, Dwight says "Question: Did my shoes come off in the plane crash?" It would be impossible for him to store anything in his shoes with airport security.
 * Early in the episode, Ryan says that he doesn't want to be “a guy here”. By the end of the episode, he is deemed “The Fire Guy”.
 * Early in the episode, Ryan says that he doesn't want to be “a guy here”. By the end of the episode, he is deemed “The Fire Guy”.

Goofs

 * As the camera pans out from Michael running out of the burning building, a microphone boom arm can briefly be seen at the top right of the screen.
 * In the scene when Dwight, Michael, and Ryan are discussing business school, in the shot where Dwight begins roughhousing with Ryan with a firetruck in the background, the camera pans slightly to the left and another camera can be seen briefly entering the frame.
 * 09:21 into the episode a camera crew and lighting set can be seen briefly before the camera zooms into Michael, Dwight and Ryan.
 * The windows at the front of the building seem cloudy/matte colored, but they're clear in any other episodes where the front of the building is shown.

Behind the scenes

 * This was the first episode filmed for the second season. According to the DVD commentary, this episode was originally intended to be the season opener, but NBC decided that "The Dundies" would be a better opening episode. Some story lines remain from the original episode order:
 * Michael's man-crush on Ryan begins in this episode. It would explain why Michael awarded Ryan the Hottest in the Office Dundie award.
 * The introduction of Katy as Jim's girlfriend flows more naturally from the final episode of Season 1, "Hot Girl".
 * The firefighters in the episode are real fire fighters from a Los Angeles firehouse. Their uniforms are replicas of the Scranton Fire Department uniform.
 * At the suggestion of B.J. Novak and Greg Daniels, Dwight's first pump became more and more animated at each take, leading to the final over-the-top version that has become an internet meme.
 * Angela Kinsey's hair is naturally a dirty blonde. She tried to save some money by dying it herself, which is why in this episode, Angela Martin's hair is bleached blonde.
 * Michael's ring tone is "". The writers were obsessed with that song at the time.

Cultural references

 * Mr. Miyagi is the karate master in the ' movie series. ' is the Jedi master in the ' movie series. ' is a character from . voiced both Yoda and Fozzie bear, thus the two characters voices similar enough that Ryan confused the two.
 * '/' and '/' are two fictional crime-fighting duos. Bonto is a made-up name.
 * Stat (short for statim = immediately) is medical jargon. Appended to a command, it means that the action should be performed immediately.
 * Image is everything is the tag line to an ad campaign for starring tennis player .
 * Dwight asks, "Did my shoes come off in the plane crash?" Dwight assumes that he is stranded on the island due to a plane crash, like the characters of the television program .
 * Michael confuses ' with . Kaplan is the founder of a company that produces test preparation materials. Grafton is known for her series of mystery novels, whose titles follow the pattern ', ', etc. "M" Is for Murder (possibly a confused reference to the  classic ') and "P" Is for Phone are not among her titles.
 * ', ', and  are professional basketball players noted for beginning their NBA careers directly after high school.
 * Bad Idea Jeans is a fake brand of blue jeans that was the subject of multiple parody advertisements on the sketch comedy program "".
 * The song Dwight sings at the end of the episode is  by . He sings the end of the first stanza, and then adds the chorus, changing "We didn't start the fire" to "Ryan started the fire."

Quotes

 * see The Fire Quotes

Main cast

 * Steve Carell as Michael Scott
 * Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute
 * John Krasinski as Jim Halpert
 * Jenna Fischer as Pam Beesly
 * B.J. Novak as Ryan Howard

Recurring cast

 * David Denman as Roy Anderson
 * Amy Adams as Katy
 * Leslie David Baker as Stanley Hudson
 * Brian Baumgartner as Kevin Malone
 * Kate Flannery as Meredith Palmer
 * Mindy Kaling as Kelly Kapoor
 * Angela Kinsey as Angela Martin
 * Paul Lieberstein as Toby Flenderson
 * Oscar Nunez as Oscar Martinez
 * Phyllis Smith as Phyllis Vance
 * Creed Bratton as Creed Bratton (Uncredited)
 * Devon Abner as Devon White (Uncredited)

Guest cast

 * Shawn C. Sims as Security Guard (Uncredited)