Being a Prison Firefighter Taught Me to Save Lives

[douglas9]

Note: This is not a post about the narco war, so if that upsets you simply do not read the post. This is a post about the integral inmate firefighter force that has long supplemented CalFire in fighting those nasty wild fires of California, which seemingly now has no season but rather appears most of the year.

My son just completed a 40-day deployment in NorCal.

He texted me on Labor Day week saying “Hey Ma, I will be off by Labor day how about I go for a visit and BBQ?” I was excited, we do not live close to each other, when he travels to me it is a treat. But that never happened. He had no replacement. In fact he is a Public Information Officer, but this time he was on the fireline.

These historical record-breaking fires, of which our Yaqui was in the middle of, were different in many aspects, one is the CalFire force was without their usual inmate FF force. Because of a prison outbreak of Covid-19.

Many of you probably didn’t know about inmate FF’s. They are terrific and are fireline qualified fire fighters doing the same work as FFs. They are an invaluable resource. They go into the work knowing they may die, and knowing they will never be hired in a fire department.

In the last three years 3 inmate FFs died in action. There is a bill that will allow inmates to be hired as long as their convictions are not of certain types such as violent crimes. I support that bill for many reasons. Read one man’s story below….Chivis


http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2020/10/being-prison-firefighter-taught-me-to.html

[yonder]

1. A year or so ago, PBS did a piece on inmate firefighters

in California. The tough training they underwent was only matched by their desire to succeed, and many were not accepted. For me, it was an interesting look at not only the training but the individual willpower of those trying to make a positive difference in their own lives as well as the public good.

[pansypoo53219]

2. NPR did too. + mentioned the stupid law preventing them to get jobs as FFs after their sentence.

[Retrograde]

3. Newsom recently signed an order

allowing prison firefighters' convictions to be expunged: that's a step in the right direction.