When TV star Mike Rowe and his film crew stepped into Bastrop County, they appeared to have little idea of the community’s somber history with wildfires.

Rowe, who is known for his shows on Discovery Channel and CNN, wandered onto a forested property with his producer in fall wielding a handsaw and eyeing a sapling pine tree to cut down to set up as a Christmas tree. That’s when Bastrop County resident Delia Holmes walked from her home to Rowe, curious and apparently concerned with what he was planning to do with that saw.

“I’m very protective of these trees,” she told them. “These up here came back naturally after the fire.”

Rowe and his team were in Bastrop County filming an episode of his new series, "Returning the Favor," in which he travels throughout the country surprising do-gooders with gifts of support. In October, Rowe was making a surprise visit to Blake “PeeWee” Henson, a career and volunteer firefighter who founded the Texas Firewalkers — an aid organization for Texas families who’ve been affected by fires, as Henson was. So when Rowe and crew found Henson at the Heart of the Pines fire station, he took some deep breaths before reaching in for a hug.

“I can vividly see it now,” Henson said as he described the residential fire that destroyed his home over a decade ago. “Every time I go back and think about it, it builds my desire to further the efforts of Texas Firewalkers and the efforts to help people in this state.”

In the episode, Heart of the Pines volunteer firefighters explain to Rowe the impact the 2011 Complex Fire and the 2015 Hidden Pines Fire had on the community, and how Henson acted as a safety net.

“The Hidden Pines Fire is when I first met PeeWee. I put a call out to him for help. That man showed up with food, water, firefighters, resources to back us up, to let us get some food, to let us get some rest,” said volunteer firefighter Darrell Byrer through tears. “Then he gets up and goes fight the fire with us. So that’s what neighbors do.”

Then, Henson and Rowe head off to a Texas Firewalkers barbecue, which is the primary way the organization raises funds, and Rowe focuses on several of those whom Henson's services has helped.

Henson showed up to one family who lost a home to an electrical fire and “he wrote us a check, and that helped a lot to get the clothes that we needed and a couple new toys for the girls. Everybody was just there to help people he didn’t even know,” said Danielle Snell, a mother of three.

“We’d love to drink beer and eat barbecue and raise all this money and never use a single dime of it,” said DJ Marak, a Texas Firewalkers volunteer. “But the truth of the matter is that shit happens.”

The episode went live on Christmas Day, and Henson’s wife Margie told Rowe about how the life of a firefighter will sometimes require Henson and his family to abandon Christmas morning to battle a blaze. “My whole family, there was a fire, and we all load up in the car and go to the structure fire — on Christmas day,” she said.

So on that balmy October day, the production crew put together a Christmas celebration for Henson and his team. The gift under the tree was a $30,000 check for the Texas Firewalkers.

“This right here will probably help us get further than we probably ever could dream,” Henson said.