NBC’s Fire & Rescue docuseries produced by Dick Wolf tells the stories of the real-life heroes of the Los Angeles County Fire Department through seven different fire and rescue stations. The show interviews captains, firefighters, paramedics, and other personnel and gets dangerously close as camera crews ride along on emergency calls. Be on the lookout for Fire Station 8 in West Hollywood with Captain Mike Carolan and select firefighters.
The docuseries features rescue squads, air operations, lifeguard squads, spanning from WeHo to Palmdale to the shoreline.
Personnel from Station 8 includes a profile of firefighter Dave Castellanos, who has spent three years as a probationary firefighter due to testicular cancer (the probation period is usually a year). The show reveals how his fellow squad members cover his shifts so he could retain his insurance for treatment. He is now finally becoming a full-time firefighter, and the squad has a party in his honor.
Other stories from Station 8 include Captain Carolan West Hollywood moment when he pulled up alongside a convertible with Arnold Schwarzenegger chomping on a cigar and Station 8 using a machine to do CPR compressions on a man who has collapsed.
Wolf serves as an executive producer on the unscripted project, joining forces with Tom Thayer (Wolf Entertainment), Rasha Drachkovitch (44 Blue) and Robyn Younie, who serves as showrunner.
“We went out on over 1,000 calls, which is really a huge volume,” Drachkovitch told The Wrap in an exclusive interview. “We were on the equivalent of on-call, because calls could come in 2:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m. So the crews really were set for 24/7 shifts, and we had to have a lot of things pre-set, in a sense, to never get in the way of a call. Obviously, we’re there to observe, not to become the story.”
LA Fire & Rescue premieres tonight 8/7c on NBC and returns every Wednesday.
