The heat is on at Station 19
Stars of firefighting drama tested while filming upcoming third season
Station 19 Returns Thursday, CTV/ABC
Jay Hayden isn’t a firefighter, but he plays one on TV. As such, sometimes the Hollywood-ness of his profession bumps up against the daily realities of the people he portrays.
That is, he doesn’t always get to look pretty for the camera.
Hayden recalls one time he was on set filming the ABC/CTV drama Station 19. The plot called for a warehouse explosion with fire and poisonous gas, and Hayden’s character Travis was on cleanup duty.
“I was like, ‘I don’t want to wear this mask because I want people to see my face,’” says Hayden, laughing.
“And the technical adviser was like, ‘Jay, no. You cannot. We would never not wear the mask during this kind of cleanup. Jay, please.’ But we do listen to them at the end of the day.”
Even if that means hauling at least 45 pounds (20 kilograms), worth of equipment around a scorching set. Basic firefighting gear includes a coat, helmet, hood, pants, boots and an air pack.
Throw in a thermal imaging camera, radio, box light, Halligan bar and axe, and you could be up to 75 pounds (34 kilograms).
“Physically it’s so draining and it’s so hot in there to begin with,” says Hayden. “When you go into an actual fire, it’s not like being at a campfire and saying, ‘Oh, that’s warm.’ It’s incredibly hot. You’re basically cooking inside there.”
Jason George, who plays Ben Warren on the show, says he’s grown especially appreciative of the camaraderie firefighters have in real life.
He sees it up close: Most of the background actors wearing gear on the show are actually firefighters on their day off.
“We’re in pretend fires in the gear, and we’re sweating bullets. When we’re laid out on our chairs, everybody’s sweating and trying to catch their breath. We feel like we’ve been though something together, and that’s not even real danger.
“It makes you realize what they’ve got. To have that brotherhood and sisterhood among firefighters is beautiful.”
As a spinoff of Grey’s Anatomy, Station 19 will begin its third season by airing a two-hour crossover event with its predecessor. Station 19 starts the night with Part 1 — titled I Know This Bar — and Grey’s wraps things up with Part 2, Help Me Through the Night.
“For the fans, it’s going to be awesome because the universe is going to open up. We’re going to be interacting with them and they’ll be over here interacting with us. For us, it’s going to be extremely hectic in terms of scheduling,” says Hayden. “But the set is right down the street — a 15-minute drive in traffic.”
“I can do it in 10!” says George, who originated the role of Ben as an anesthesiologist on Grey’s Anatomy before moving to Station 19 as a series regular.
Ben’s married to Grey’s character Miranda Bailey, which allows plenty of opportunities for him to pop up there.
“We’ve had a few different folks cross over from Grey’s to Station 19, and I’m looking for that cross-pollination,” says George. “I’m waiting for Jay to have a scene with Kevin Mckidd. I’m waiting to hang out with Jesse Williams again. I want the plastics posse to ride again, but on Station 19.”
That said, George knows the show has to carve out a legacy of its own.
In the season 2 finale, the team battled a ripped-from-the-headlines Los Angeles wildfire.
Travis was arrested for assaulting a fellow firefighter, and Ben amputated the hand of a character played by guest star Patrick Duffy, best known as Bobby Ewing on Dallas.
“As big as Dallas was, everybody on the set remembered this show he did for one or two seasons before Dallas, called Man from Atlantis. He got the biggest kick out of that,” says George.
“I’d go in the trailer the next day and there’s a DVD of Man from Atlantis sitting on my chair from Patrick — he was a really sweet guy.
“Then I cut off his hand.”