Nearly a year after the L.A. fires, 'Fire Country' draws inspiration from those who fought it

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A worried mother working miles away from her family frantically tries to get her three children out of harm’s way as an out of control fire ravages their community.Firefighters do everything they can, but strong winds are working against them to make the destruction go from bad to worse.This scenario is reminiscent of the heroics that are portrayed weekly on the CBS firefighter television drama “Fire Country,” which follows the dedicated Cal Fire station in Northern California where an abundance of wooded areas make fire a common hazard.

However, this particular story is very real and comes from actor Diane Farr, who plays Cal Fire Division Chief Sharon Leone and mother to firefighter Bode Leone (Max Thieriot, also a co-creator and executive producer) on the series.Farr remembers how in January she was on the show’s set in Vancouver while the wildfires were wreaking havoc in Los Angeles.“My house was inside the evacuation order and I had to start flying my children out as fast as I could from L.A.,” she says of her La Cañada Flintridge home, which survived.

“We were evacuated for eight days and the wind just went toward Altadena as opposed to coming toward our house.It was terrifying and was very eye opening for us.”The horrific Los Angeles fires were eventually contained after catastrophic damage to the city, with some heroic firefighters leaving with jarring stories they were able to share with the “Fire Country” cast and crew.

“Two of our consultants are L.A.firefighters, Matty and Marty Mullen, who had shown me a lot of videos of real firefighting of what was going on in L.A.

that we were able to infuse into our [Season 3] finale,” says executive producer Tia Napolitano.“It felt important that we could show real authenticity inspired by the L.A.

fires that we all lived through.I can’t believe it’s only been a year.”That dedication to auth...