This year, the wildfire season in California has been one of the most destructive on record, with nearly 8,000 fires engulfing over 1,600,000 acres of land, as of November 11. In fact, this month’s fires, which include the Woolsey and Camp Fire, have become the state’s deadliest and most destructive wildfires on record, surpassing August’s Mendocino Complex Fire, which torched about 350,000 acres of land.
In the Mendocino fires, according to CNBC, about 14,000 firefighters worked to contain the blaze, with the help of more than 2,000 inmate volunteers, including 58 youth offenders. And now, according to a local ABC affiliate, about 200 inmate firefighters are helping control the Butte County Camp Fire.
However, while real firefighters risk their lives with a salary to fall back on to support their families, the inmates are risking their lives for $2 a day, as part of a volunteer firefighting program run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which dates back to 1915.
According to the CNBC, if the fires are active, inmates get paid $1 an hour with the opportunity to earn time off their sentence. However, the program is only offered to inmates with “minimum custody,” without arson, rape or sex offenses, who live in “conservation camps” to do physical labor.
However, the CDCR maintains that the program helps save the state money, all while giving inmates the opportunity to build skills in firefighting, even though most EMT certifying boards deny applicants with a criminal history.
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