And now, wildfire has devastated her own community. Farr lives in Los Angeles County in the town next to Altadena, in the area where the Eaton Fire burned nearly 10,000 structures.
So she’s using her platform as one of TV’s most prominent fictitious firefighters to rally support for the real Cal Fire firefighters and the incarcerated firefighters who work beside them.
But “now it feels nervous-making to get it right,” she tells Parade. “I feel proud to portray them. But in this moment, I have never wanted to get something more right than I have right now, as the world sort of turns their gaze to what wildland firefighters do, and what the incarcerated are doing.”
Diane Farr’s wildfire experience
Her home was spared, but her community was severely impacted. She shared on Instagram that the elementary school her kids attended burned to the ground, and 22 teachers at her kids’ high school lost their homes.
Related: Everything to Know About Fire Country Season 3
Diane Farr and Eve Latimer in 'Fire Country' Season 3, Episode 3Sergei Bachlakov/CBS
Cal Fire firefighters are “true heroes” who are “really underfunded,” Farr says. She doesn’t want to “bag on” city legislators for things they did or didn’t do, and there’s no way anyone could have funded this much overtime and materials like replacement hoses and trucks. But Farr thinks the firefighters don’t have enough support even under normal circumstances.
“Bring a tray of lasagna,” she says. “Do anything that you would do for your neighbor who’s working really hard at the moment.”
"A story about redemption"
The Cal Fire fighters will get to go home when the job is done. That’s not the case for the incarcerated firefighters who are supporting them. These inmates are doing a dangerous and essential job, and they’re paid as little as $10.24 a day for it. The Cal Fire inmate firefighter program has been criticized for its low pay and use of prison labor, but as Fire Country dramatizes, it can be a positive, even life-changing thing for the people who choose to do it.
“I worked in the prison system when I first moved to LA and I was hustling to get acting jobs,” she continues. “I was teaching acting in a maximum security men's prison, and what I found in the classes—this was a place to give people another avenue of how to express themselves—was that eight out of 10 of the men in my classes couldn't read. So we had failed them in a school system, and then we had failed them in a society, and they were insolvent, and the things they had to do to make money were leaving them with zero choices for life. So if we can train someone with an actual skill while in prison, it would only be better for them when their sentence is done, but if we can train them in a skill that elevates them in society, where they're really a part of society, where they're performing a civic duty that elevates them, I think this is the best chance we have.”
Fire Country is about a convict named Bode Leone, who is played by co-creator Max Thieriot. Bode went to prison for committing an armed robbery to support his drug addiction. He’s using the inmate firefighter program to help make amends for what he did.
Related: Fire Country Star Max Thieriot Talks Bode's Major Milestone and Sending Off Jared Padalecki
Billy Burke, Eve Latimer and Diane Farr in 'Fire Country'Sergei Bachlakov/CBS
Support the real heroes
“I've never believed that television dramas are supposed to be a documentary. But I'm well aware that as people in television, we have a bigger platform to share information than the actual real life heroes doing it,” she says. “The drama on television is going to help inform people, which will help inform voting, which will help inform funding. So if I take myself out of the equation, I'm absolutely thrilled that the show already exists so people can come to it and see and understand what those workers are doing for their community.”
“I think we all feel really helpless watching a fire, whether you're sitting nearby or sitting far away,” she says. “I might venture to say that having trained so extensively made me feel extra helpless, because I have a vague idea of what's supposed to be done. I know how to work a hose, and I know how to pull it out of a truck, and I know what tools you need to change the oxygen content of a room to make it smaller, to make it bigger. I have a full outfit with a helmet and boots and gloves that fit me. And yet, if I even attempted to help, I would only be in the way. So it's like that old saying of ‘I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV.’”
Fire Country Season 3 returns Friday, Jan. 31 at 9/8c on CBS and Paramount+.
Related: Diane Farr Reveals She Lost Her Voice Due to Anxiety While Directing 'Fire Country'
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