Fire Country's Diane Farr Was Filming Series When Her L.A. Home Was in Evacuation Zone: 'I Felt Extra Helpless' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Diane Farr.Photo:Sergei Bachlakov/CBS via Getty

Sergei Bachlakov/CBS via Getty

“I’m looking at my house and my neighborhood and the definition of home a little differently,” she adds.

Eaton Fire, Altadena, Pasadena.Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty

Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty

The Eaton and Palisades fires began on Tuesday, Jan. 7, when Farr had just gone back to work, leaving friends and family members home after celebrating the holidays. When her partner called asking what she wanted to take during the evacuation, she recalls saying, “Nothing. Just get out of the house.”

“I had flown to Canada to start filming after the Christmas break forFire Country, and two of my girls go to boarding school out of state,” she says. “The night the fires broke out, we put them on a plane a little early, to get them out, and my son went and stayed with his dad in Pasadena. And we had friends still staying here from Christmas, who we then put up around town.”

In the panic, Farr says she returned home during the first break she got during filming to see her entire neighborhood gone.

“It was just terrifying,” she shares. “It just leaves you weepy. I’m crying at the drop of the hat. I don’t know if it’s the energy of our whole city, or just how unsafe it feels.”

“It’s so hard to watch the fires because we feel so helpless,” she says. “I might say that I feel a little extra helpless because I have a limited amount of information. I have a full suit with boots and gloves and a helmet, and yet if I came down and tried to do anything, I would be in the way.”

Diane Farr.Sergei Bachlakov/CBS via Getty

With her platform, she says she hopes to spread the word about the importance ofCal Fire(California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) in particular, which focuses on tackling wildfires — the source of both the Eaton and Palisades fires before they caught onto structures.

“What Cal Fire is doing is so unthinkable,” she says. “They go to a fire, and they live at it. We talk about firemen working 24-hour shift, or two days on and three days off. The Cal Fire personnel camp at the fire line, and they don’t leave until the fire’s out.”

“Once the fire is out, those firefighters stay to do the cleanup, which is some of the hardest, least thankful work," she adds. “So, in some ways, filming right now feels a little bit more humbling to me because I feel like so many more people are aware of what Cal Fire is, and for the very first time, folks are aware that the incarcerated are the only way we can handle these fires.”

Despite the challenging times, she has found the silver lining in all of it: the kindness of loved ones and strangers alike.

“I think, as Angelenos, the beautiful part is we’re all looking at each other,” she shares. “Like, how do we support each other? I have never received so many text messages and calls and emails. And even in the aftermath, I feel like everyone knows three to 10 people who lost their home. It’s just been an unbelievable push to help one another, which I really hope lasts because we’re going to need this.”

Diane Farr as Sharon Leone and Billy Burke as Vince Leone.Sergei Bachlakov/CBS via Getty

In her community, Farr says people have stepped up to help teachers who lost their homes and the schools where they worked.

“It’s unfathomable,” she says. “Because we were a public school, they ask for a donation every year. It seems like a large amount of money, but it’s per family instead of per kid, so it’s $3,000 per family per year. And it’s an ask. It’s not required. And this year, they have allowed us to donate it specifically to the teachers instead of the school, and still it’s tax-deductible and it goes towards your contribution. They’ve raised a lot of money for the families, which I think is spectacular because we need to have a long-term goal.”

Being onFire Country,Farr aims to use the show to continue raising awareness about the impact the fires are having on hundreds of thousands of people.

She adds: “What is the point of a platform if you don’t use it to be of service?”

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Fire Countryairs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.

Click hereto learn more about how to help the victims of the L.A. fires.

source: people.com