Fireplace Nation’s Diane Farr Was Filming Sequence When Her L.A. Dwelling Was in Evacuation Zone (Unique)

Diane Farr’s onscreen life hit nearer to house after she was impacted by the current Los Angeles fires.

The actress, who stars as hearth captain Sharon Leone in CBS’s Fireplace Nation, opened as much as PEOPLE about watching Altadena burn after years of calling the town house. Though her home survived, Farr, 55, says the harm to the encompassing space highlights simply how a lot has been misplaced.

“One time in my 20s, my automotive was damaged into, and I used to be sitting in a restaurant, and I occurred to see the one who burglarized my automotive with my duffel bag strolling by,” she says. “And I bear in mind going again to the automotive and having a not right-sized response of eager to promote the automotive. I did not wish to get within the automotive after somebody had been in it. And there is a feeling like that about the home. It seems like house, however it additionally feels a little bit harmful with out help.”

“I am taking a look at my home and my neighborhood and the definition of house a little bit otherwise,” she provides.

The Eaton and Palisades fires started on Tuesday, Jan. 7, when Farr had simply gone again to work, leaving family and friends members house after celebrating the vacations. When her companion referred to as asking what she needed to take throughout the evacuation, she remembers saying, “Nothing. Simply get out of the home.”

“I had flown to Canada to begin filming after the Christmas break for Fireplace Nation, and two of my ladies go to boarding faculty out of state,” she says. “The night time the fires broke out, we put them on a airplane a little bit early, to get them out, and my son went and stayed along with his dad in Pasadena. And we had associates nonetheless staying right here from Christmas, who we then put up round city.”

Within the panic, Farr says she returned house throughout the first break she acquired throughout filming to see her whole neighborhood gone.

“It was simply terrifying,” she shares. “It simply leaves you weepy. I am crying on the drop of the hat. I do not know if it is the vitality of our complete metropolis, or simply how unsafe it feels.”

That is Farr’s third time taking part in a firefighter on TV, and by now, she has developed a deep understanding and appreciation for first responders. For the present Rescue Me, she visited three completely different firehouses, the place she “educated extensively for structural fires,” and for one more function, she even discovered how you can fly a Cessna plane to play a “smoke jumper”.

“It is so arduous to look at the fires as a result of we really feel so helpless,” she says. “I would say that I really feel a little bit additional helpless as a result of I’ve a restricted quantity of data. I’ve a full go well with with boots and gloves and a helmet, and but if I got here down and tried to do something, I’d be in the best way.”

“There’s that previous joke about, ‘I am not a health care provider, however I play one on TV,’” Farr laughs. “That is how I really feel as a firefighter. It provides me simply sufficient data that I feel I do know what’s alleged to occur, however I can not truly assist in any manner.”

Along with her platform, she says she hopes to unfold the phrase concerning the significance of Cal Fireplace (California Division of Forestry and Fireplace Safety) specifically, which focuses on tackling wildfires — the supply of each the Eaton and Palisades fires earlier than they caught onto constructions.

“What Cal Fireplace is doing is so unthinkable,” she says. “They go to a hearth, and so they dwell at it. We speak about firemen working 24-hour shift, or two days on and three days off. The Cal Fireplace personnel camp on the hearth line, and so they do not go away till the hearth’s out.”

“As soon as the hearth is out, these firefighters keep to do the cleanup, which is among the hardest, least grateful work,” she provides. “So, in some methods, filming proper now feels a little bit bit extra humbling to me as a result of I really feel like so many extra persons are conscious of what Cal Fireplace is, and for the very first time, of us are conscious that the incarcerated are the one manner we are able to deal with these fires.”

Regardless of the difficult instances, she has discovered the silver lining in all of it: the kindness of family members and strangers alike.

“I feel, as Angelenos, the attractive half is we’re all taking a look at one another,” she shares. “Like, how will we help one another? I’ve by no means acquired so many textual content messages and calls and emails. And even within the aftermath, I really feel like everybody is aware of three to 10 individuals who misplaced their house. It is simply been an unbelievable push to assist each other, which I actually hope lasts as a result of we’ll want this.”

In her neighborhood, Farr says individuals have stepped as much as assist lecturers who misplaced their properties and the colleges the place they labored.

“It is unfathomable,” she says. “As a result of we have been a public faculty, they ask for a donation yearly. It looks like a big sum of money, however it’s per household as a substitute of per child, so it is $3,000 per household per yr. And it is an ask. It is not required. And this yr, they’ve allowed us to donate it particularly to the lecturers as a substitute of the varsity, and nonetheless it is tax-deductible and it goes in the direction of your contribution. They’ve raised some huge cash for the households, which I feel is spectacular as a result of we have to have a long-term objective.”

Being on Fireplace Nation, Farr goals to make use of the present to proceed elevating consciousness concerning the impression the fires are having on a whole bunch of 1000’s of individuals.

“Even when I play a firefighter on TV, perhaps in six months we’ll have the ability to speak about a secondary line of assist, which might most likely embrace remedy, and haircuts, and oil adjustments, and the small issues that persons are going to want to maintain their psychological well being going,” she explains. “Possibly will probably be free fitness center memberships, perhaps it’s going to be mountain climbing golf equipment when the air high quality is best. Simply issues to permit individuals to let their nervous system relax as soon as the framework of how they are going to transfer ahead is in place.”

She provides: “What’s the level of a platform if you happen to do not use it to be of service?”

By no means miss a narrative — join PEOPLE’s free day by day publication to remain up-to-date on one of the best of what PEOPLE has to supply, from juicy celeb information to driving human curiosity tales.

Fireplace Nation airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.

Click on right here to study extra about how you can assist the victims of the L.A. fires.