Pandemic prompts Max Thieriot to pen ‘Fire Country,” based on his past

Waiting for work to begin during the pandemic, he toyed with the idea of creating a series about California firefighters. “I wrote (one of the characters) with myself in mind and one other buddy,” he says.

But, since he hadn’t pitched a series before and already had steady work on “SEAL Team,” the 33-year-old husband and father of two didn’t consider the likelihood of it transpiring. The pitch made it to producers, however, and they had a question for the man with the idea: “You’re going to play the guy, right?”

Now, “Fire Country” is on the air and “SEAL Team” is still in his line of vision.

“Thankfully, we started ‘SEAL Team’ season 6 before we started shooting the second episode of ‘Fire Country,’” Thieriot says. “I was able to work it right into the gap. It’s been crazy…but I’m young and I can keep up, so it works for me.”

In the new series, Thieriot plays a convict who hopes to shorten his prison sentence by joining a prison release firefighting program in Northern California. He gets assigned to his hometown, where he has to work alongside former friends.

Born in Occidental, California, Thieriot grew up around firefighters and knew the landscape. “When everybody needs to come together, they do,” he says. “Even people who aren’t from a small town can imagine what that’s like. I felt it was an important core foundation for the show.”

Thieriot remembers texting friends in Northern California and getting details. “They face danger every day and protect people’s lives but, in the down time, they’re doing other stuff.” During COVID, for example, a woman hadn’t seen her mother in six months. Her mother was in a room on the second floor of a nursing home and couldn’t have visitors. To help the woman, firefighters drove her to the facility and raised her to the second floor so she could see her mother’s face. “It was just one of the small gestures that firefighters do.”

In addition to the daring rescues, “Fire Country” will highlight those quieter moments that go into making firefighters essential workers.

Because he had grown up among them, Thieriot didn’t realize what kind of impact they had until he was living in a city. “It’s such a different way of living, but it’s also the comfort and the familiarity you have and how close this community is,” he says.

As daunting as his high-profile jobs may seem, Thieriot says the words of his grandfather resonate: “Make hay while the sun shines.” “It’s like, I’m young, it’s time to work and I can do it.”

“Fire Country” airs on CBS.