“I grew up in a town called Occidental,” revealed Max Thieriot about the small town he’s from in California’s Sonoma County. Growing up in an area prone to wildfires inspired his new show Fire Country, created by, executive produced by, and starring the SEAL Team star. “I didn't realize how interesting life in a small town is until I left and went and worked in these big cities,” the star shared during a TCA press conference to promote the CBS series, which premieres tonight at 9/8c. The series follows a young convict who agrees to a shortened prison sentence by joining a prison release firefighting program, unintentionally finding himself back in his old hometown. “The comfort that you have and the familiarity you have with everybody and how close this community is. In times of struggle and when everybody needs to come together, they really do, and they all support each other. And I think even people who aren't from a small town can imagine what that's like and have thought about that. That's why I felt like it was an important core foundation for the show.”
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“Maybe I'm a closet pyro,” joked Billy Burke, who has played a firefighter before in the film Ladder 49 and on 9-1-1: Lone Star. “It's always the character that brings me to something, and the guy on 9-1-1 is just this despicable yet somehow likable guy. This is a 180 from that guy, so having nothing to do with the fire world. He's a totally different dude and one that I can't say that I've ever really played before. So that was very attractive to me.”
“I have been very fortunate to play a string of pretty memorable police officers, which I was greatly honored to do, and the fire world was a complete mystery to me,” added Kevin Alejandro, who found Fire Country to offer new challenges to his law enforcement roles on previous shows, including Grey’s Anatomy. “We dive as deep as we can to respect not only the script but respect the job that's put in front of us. I'm loving this journey, and it's still a mystery to me, and the thing that I love most about what we're doing is that I want to do my part in representing firefighters in the best way possible. We're put in a situation and have been up to this point to handle that and to be able to explore that in a great way, and we have great people on our side, great fire consultants that are whispering in our ear at every point if something's wrong or if something doesn't quite ring true, and we find the best way to stick within our entertainment values but also to respect what they have to offer.”
Diane Farr has been working in film and television for three decades and has seen the evolution of fire effects. “We're not allowed to risk anything anymore,” the actress explained. “Shooting in Vancouver, it was 112 degrees the first week we were here. We're in a rainforest. It's not equipped to have that much heat with that much fuel. The trees, the leaves, the bushes, its fuel. So it feels scarier in the world.” Weather conditions dictated whether the team could use on-set fire or had to go all digital in post-production, but Diane still found a way to be harrowing. “I ride a motorcycle in real life, and I told Tia [Napolitano, showrunner], and she wrote it in. So they got me a motorcycle for the show, which is hella dangerous. So dangerous, a stunt guy tried to take it away from me in episode 2, but we won that argument, and you will see me on that motorcycle.”
(Bettina Strauss/CBS)
“You don't realize how much these guys and these girls go through,” Jordan Calloway said of the physical demands of being a firefighter, expressing that this experience was quite different from the physical demands of working on DC’s Black Lightning. “It was really the oxygen tank that we had for one of our episodes that you guys will see. The amount of equipment that these heroes are carrying throughout the day and constantly running in, constantly checking the surroundings, seeing what structures are still well intact, depending on what the call is. And then when you get out to the wildlands and you're dealing with forest fires, you're talking about long days. Luckily, we're not having to fight these fires, obviously. But I have a few friends that are also in the fire department as well who have worked on some of the fires in California as well, that being my hometown as well.” He recalls having to evacuate Altadena in 1996 and stay with his grandparents until the fires were cleared. “You have such respect for CAL FIRE, for these heroes with the long hours that they're spending on the sites fighting and combatting these fires, how quickly the winds can change, and then put them in harm's way. It's a different beast, you know? It's one thing fighting a stunt fighter versus dealing with fire where you don't know what's going to happen.”
“Our firefighters battle wildfires from the Oregon border all the way down to Mexico,” executive producer Tony Phelan shared about the heroics viewers will see on Fire Country. “They also do water rescue, they do search and rescue. So there are all sorts of stories to tell.” You’ll see a different rescue effort most weeks, while character arcs will be drawn out throughout the season. “We've got quite a few mysteries at the center of our town that we're going to have a lot of fun, and there will be a lot of intrigue sort of unspooling those.”
“I had never tried pitching anything or even finished writing anything,” Max Thieriot explained about his naivety surrounding developing a series, starting this at the beginning of the pandemic. “I always sort of wrote this character with myself in mind and one other buddy,” the star revealed, not realizing that it would mean working simultaneously on two shows, this and SEAL Team. “Thankfully we started SEAL Team season 6 before we started shooting the series. I kind of was able to work it right into the gap in between.” It goes without saying that Max has been very busy. “It's been crazy, but life's crazy, and I got a couple kids to throw in there, and I'm moving around up to Vancouver to shoot a TV show. But I'm young, and I can keep up, and I like staying busy, so it works for me.”
Fire Country premieres tonight at 9/8c on CBS and will also stream live and on-demand on Paramount+.