Du Quoin woman signs on at Firehouse 51: Haley Conner, 22, part of the production team on NBC's hugely popular Chicago Fire

Dick Wolf, producer of the long-running "Law & Order" series, has been pushing all the hero buttons in Season 2 of his television drama "Chicago Fire" (Tuesday night 9 p.m. CST on NBC) and a 22-year-old Du Quoin woman is three months into being part of the production team.

Haley Conner, the daughter of Michelle and Bernie Kern of Du Quoin and Dennis Conner of Pinckneyville, is an office production assistant to the show, shot on location in neighborhoods across Chicago.

She is a 2009 graduate of the Du Quoin High School and a graduate of the School of Communications at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

"It's exciting," says Haley, who works as the show's Girl Friday, doing everything from trafficking documents and materials to and from the set of the show to purchasing and sorting through the mountains of mail.

Haley is comfortable in her new surroundings. She was a producer for WSIU Radio news while at the university. She was executive producer of alt.news 26:46 and before that an office assistant in the SIU housing office.

She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the radio and television department.

She was an honor student at the Du Quoin High School before graduating in 2009.

For the firefighters, rescue squad and paramedics of Chicago Firehouse 51, no occupation is more stressful or dangerous, yet so rewarding and exhilarating.

The pressure to perform on such a high level has a way of taking a personal toll on the actors of Firehouse 51. It hasn't taken a toll yet on Haley, who has become accustomed to the 12-hour days. "I had to get use to it. Now I work 60-65 hours a week," she says.

Chicago Fire sometimes puts team members from the truck and the specially trained rescue squad at odds with each other. Despite any differences, this is an extended family, and when it's "go time," everyone inside Firehouse 51 knows no other way than to lay it all on the line for each other.

It's an extended family for Haley, as well, who knows all of the actors.

"A friend I worked with at college knew about this job. I went for an interview and got the job. "I've been there about three months and work in the office under the production coordinator," she says.

"The ratings (on the show) are up. We have been very excited. This is a tough business to be in, but this is definitely a great starting point."

Chicago Fire had well over 8 million viewers last week. By comparison, NCIS on CBS continues to set records with 18 million followed by NCIS Los Angeles with 14 million and The Voice with 12 million.

Producer Wolf is now working on a Chicago Fire spinoff called Chicago PD.

Haley lives in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood about 15 minutes from the office. "We shoot the show in all of the Chicago neighborhoods," she said. "I had to go to the set the other day and there was this guy hanging off of a building," she said. She never knows what she is going to see when she walks onto the set.

"I am excited to see where this will take me," she said.

Haley started out with a career in journalism, but has fallen in love with television and videography.

So, instead of writing about a Chicagoland success story, she's now part of it.