Like Chicago Fire, NBC’s LA Fire & Rescue Docuseries Features ‘a Family of People’ Dealing With Extraordinary Challenges
Attention, Chicago Fire fans who are missing the show during its hiatus: NBC has something that might help fill the void this summer.
Premiering this Wednesday at 8/7c, LA Fire & Rescue is a new docuseries from #OneChicago executive producer Dick Wolf that gives viewers an inside look into the workings of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. While Windy City firefighters have to contend with snow, tighter streets and older buildings, Los Angeles presents its own set of challenges that are no picnic for first responders.
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With 59 cities and 2,300 square miles of service across L.A. County, “That’s a lot to cover,” LA Fire & Rescue’s Capt. Dan Olivas, who has led Station 16 in Watts for 18 years, tells TVLine in a joint interview with Fire star David Eigenberg. “We get some raging brush fires, structure fires, mountain rescues, helicopters, camp crews, lifeguards, fireboats. We have more resources probably than most departments have in the country. One day, I could be in the city, and the next, I could be on a raging wildland fire. A lot of departments don’t have that. That’s what makes us different.”
But there is something that the LA Fire & Rescue crews have in common with the fictional Firehouse 51 team that Eigenberg thinks is going to appeal to #OneChicago fans: Both series emphasize the bonds formed on the job.
“We have a bunch of wonderful people on Chicago Fire… and being here for the day with these first responders and firefighters [from the LACoFD], they are wonderful people,” Eigenberg says. “[Viewers are] going to get to spend time with a family of people, and we have a family in Chicago of our fellow actors and some of the real firefighters.”
Adds Eigenberg: “We can’t show certain stuff, and these guys are going to. And you’re going to see some stuff that is going to show the best in humanity and all these men and women.”
Olivas also believes that viewers will be surprised to discover just how much he and his team do beyond rescue calls.
“They’re going to see that it’s not all about fires and EMS runs. They’re going to see that we support our community that we work in,” Olivas shares. “We go out to the schools, we’ll do station tours. We have to clean our station… This is a place we live in. We’re here 24 hours a day, a third of our lives. We maintain our apparatus. We do a lot that the public doesn’t know we do.”
And now for the all-important question: Do firefighters watch firefighter dramas? Or is that like taking your work home with you?
“There’s guys out there that watch Chicago Fire. I’m one of them. It’s exciting. I like what they do. It’s a very good show. I like the chief,” says Olivas, who also tunes in for CBS’ Fire Country.
