Stream It Or Skip It: ‘LA Fire & Rescue’ On NBC, A Dick Wolf-Produced Docuseries Following Squads In The LA County Fire Department

When olds like us think of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, we think of the show Emergency!, which aired from 1972-77. While that was a great fictional depiction of some of the innovative things that department did a half-century ago, things are far different now. Dick Wolf and his production company followed a number of real-life LACoFD squads around for a new docuseries that shows just that.

LA FIRE & RESCUE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Shots of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, with a graphic that says “177 Stations in LA County” and “Over 4,700 Personnel”.

The Gist: LA Fire & Rescue, produced by Dick Wolf and his team, is a docuseries that follows various fire and rescue squads from the Los Angeles County Fire Department as they respond to calls. It includes interviews with the captains of the squads and selected firefighters, paramedics, and other personnel; the show gives what the press materials describe as “unprecedented access” inside the LACoFD.

The series follows 7 different fire and rescue squads, as well as the air operations and lifeguard squads, and shows just how diverse the conditions are in the county, from the desert in Palmdale to the shoreline. Station 16 in Watts is called “The Fire Factory” because it fights the most structure fires in the entire county. Captain Mike Carolan of Station 8 in West Hollywood describes pulling up alongside a convertible driven by a cigar-chomping Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The calls the squads go on range from Station 16, led by Captain Dan Olivas, trying to tamp down a fire in an RV trailer before the tires and other things stored in it ignite, to Station 8 using a machine to do CPR compressions on a man who has collapsed. There are gunshot wounds, warehouse fires and a high-speed chase resulting in a car crashing into a gas pump. Station 37 in Palmdale is called to help get a brush fire under control. Station 16 responds to a guy in a go-kart getting hit by a car.

We also get to know some of the firefighters, including Dave Castellanos from Station 8, who has spent three years as a probationary firefighter; the probation period is usually a year, but testicular cancer took him out of commission for almost two years, with his fellow squad members covering 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.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? A cross between Cops, Station 19, Chicago Fire and Emergency!, except in real life.

Our Take: A look inside a department full of first responders isn’t new in reality TV; we’ve even seen fire and rescue departments followed around by cameras. But LA Fire & Rescue is impressive simply because of how extensive it is. Like we said above, it’s following seven different fire and rescue squads, in addition to two specialty squads, and it really does a decent job of showing the diverse conditions the firefighters in the LACoFD have to deal with.

The production does feel a bit slick at times, especially as we cut between each squad responding to a call. The idea is to show the firefighters and rescue personal in their best light, but sometimes that butts up against the reality of being a first responder in such a sprawling, densely-populated locale. We don’t know the circumstances surrounding the teen with the gunshot wound that Station 16 treats, for instance, or if he even made it to the hospital; one of the squad members, Tony Huynh, expresses how tough it is sometimes to deal with cases like this, but it really seems like the victims of these fires and other maladies are shunted to the side in favor of showing the firefighters’ heroics.

Will we hear from firefighters who don’t thrill at the chance to get in there and quench a raging inferno? Will some of the people we hear from have trauma issues from previous fires? We’re not sure we’ll hear from any of those people.

But we do see some interesting innovations, like the machine that does CPR compressions, and it does seem like Wolf’s team has found some compelling stories in the department, so the show should be interesting to follow just for that.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: A warehouse full of combustibles — boxes of hand sanitizer — poses a problem for the responding stations.

Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to firefighter/paramedic Paco Lomeli for his Chet Kelly-level mustache.

Most Pilot-y Line: Captain Ortiz keeps ordering spicy salsa in in his tacos and burritos, then says, “maybe it’s too hot” all the time. Hyunh describes how his captain looks when that happens and it’s not pleasant.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While LA Fire & Rescue may paint the LACoFD in an overly-heroic light, it’s still fascinating to watch the various calls the first responders go on and how they keep themselves cool under pressure.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.