A gunshot victim is found in the Everglades in the mouth of an alligator, near an area where a wildfire has broken out. A prison fire brigade is called in to help fight the blaze and one member, an escaped killer, flees the scene. Horatio pursues him while Calleigh and Ryan probe the murder of the shotgun-blast victim. Later, Horatio learns that his niece, Madison, has leukemia and may die soon.