“He was a trooper with it as were our other cast members.”

Virgin River season 5 spoilers follow.

Virgin River star Martin Henderson agreed to “run through flames” while shooting Virgin River season 5’s dramatic wildfire rescue sequences, according to its director Martin Wood.

Unfolding across the fifth and sixth episodes, mayor Hope McCrea commences evacuation of the endangered town, while Henderson’s character Jack Sheridan and Mel Monroe race to save Lilly’s two daughters, Ava and Chloe, from their burning farm.

Speaking to Deadline, Wood spoke about using the famous Volume effects technology employed in The Mandalorian for some of the action – along with other visual effects, stock footage, stunt performers, and Henderson risking it all for his art.
“The visual effects that we use are the things that happen in the distance. And I think one of the things that we all decided right off the bat that we weren’t going to do was to use a lot of visual effects other than to show the proximity,” said Wood.

“Of course, that was something that we couldn’t do practically; if you are not Christopher Nolan, you don’t get that opportunity. So much of the distant work was not real and almost all of the closeup work is real,” he continued.

“The forest fire was one part of it. And then when Lilly’s house had to be burned down; that was another thing we had to contend with. How do we deal with the real flames inside the building that we’re using and inside the set that we are using?

“It’s really just logistics that go on from that point and dealing with stunt people and effects people to make it look like Martin is actually running through flames.”

Wood went on to reveal: “We talked to Martin and he goes, ‘Yeah, I’ll run through flames for you’.

“So it became a point where we are setting flame bars just above where he has to run through with a blanket covered with fire retardant. He was a trooper with it as were our other cast members.

“Then, in the Volume stage, I had an actual real tree on fire drop in front of them. So all of that makes it look like you’re really involved in being in this fire.”