Why Incarcerated Firefighters Are Battling the L.A. Wildfires

As fires continue to blaze across Los Angeles, more than 12,000 personnel have been deployed to support the ongoing firefight. Among those attempting to quell these fires are incarcerated persons working in a three-way partnership between the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), CAL FIRE, and the Los Angeles County Fire Department LACFD.

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The current state of the fires is that at least 11 people are thought to have died, according to the Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s Office. “Unfortunately I think the death toll will rise,” L.A. Sheriff Robert Luna said on Jan. 9. And the sheer volume of land destroyed is massive. As of Saturday morning—close to 36,000 acres have been decimated.

Read More: L.A. Fires Show the Reality of Living in a World with 1.5°C of Warming

As of Friday morning, 939 incarcerated firefighters have been working “around the clock cutting fire lines and removing fuel behind structures to slow fire spread,” CDCR told TIME in an emailed statement. This includes 110 members of a support staff helping the firefighters.

Here’s everything you need to know about how and why inmates are currently fighting the L.A. fires. 

Incarcerated firefighters have been working all week

Incarcerated firefighters have been on the frontlines of the multiple fires breaking out in Los Angeles County and Southern California since earlier this week. On Wednesday, the CDCR told the Washington Post it had deployed 395 imprisoned firefighters to the frontlines. A day later, that number had nearly doubled to 783. The department said the crews also have 88 staff members supporting them. By Friday morning, almost 1,000 firefighters from the program were fighting the blazes.

Read More: How to Help Victims of the Los Angeles Wildfires

A look into the program making this happen—and what the firefighters can gain

The incarcerated firefighters are a part of the Conservation (Fire) Camp Program—a partnership between CDCR, Cal Fire, and LACFD, which jointly operates 35 conservation camps across 25 counties in California.

Participants in these camps “support state, local and federal government agencies as they respond to all types of emergencies such as fires, floods, and other natural or manmade disasters,” according to the CDCR website.

Inmates must apply to be a part of the program and “no one is involuntarily assigned to work in a fire camp,” per the CDCR. “Thus, incarcerated people do not face disciplinary action if they choose not to serve their time in a fire camp.”

Those who participate in the program can also receive “time credits,” according to the CDCR. Most of those who work as firefighters can receive two-for-one credits, “meaning they receive two additional days off their sentence for every one day they serve on a fire crew,” while those working as support staff receive one-for-one credits.

The program started in 1915, though the modern protocol of training the inmates at camps began during World War II. 

Since their rates were doubled in 2023, the fire crew members now earn between $5.80 and $10.24 per day, paid by CDCR, with an additional $1 per hour during “emergencies” paid by CAL FIRE. This is the salary that the inmates currently fighting the California fires are receiving, in great contrast to their non incarcerated counterparts (salaries for the LACFD begin at around $85,000 according to their website).

In recent years, the camp sizes have shrunk, thanks largely to a combination of prison reform efforts and overcrowding during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-COVID, incarcerated firefighters made up around 30% of California’s firefighting workforce; post-COVID, this is now closer to 10 to 15%, according to The Nature Conservancy.

The dangers of the job

Though the CDCR emphasizes that inmates working as firefighters have the opportunity to gain employment from their training with CAL FIRE, graduates of the program have reported difficulties accessing firefighting jobs once released despite their experience and training.

Read More: Formerly Incarcerated Firefighters in California Speak Out On What Needs to Change

Royal Ramey is a formerly-incarcerated individual who worked in the Conservation Fire Camp Program in 2012, and experienced first hand the struggle of finding work after his release in 2014.

“The harsh reality is that once they get out [of prison], they face an uphill battle getting a job,” he tells TIME.

Now, Ramey is the co-founder and chief program officer of his own nonprofit, the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program, where he helps fellow formerly incarcerated individuals find paths to employment in forestry and wildland firefighting. The FFRP has a 10% rate of recidivism, compared to the California state average of 41.9%. 

 It’s a difficult situation, Ramey says. On the one hand, he found his “calling” as a firefighter while in prison, and he “fell in love” with the work.

“It really gave me the knowledge, skills, and abilities to be a little bit more confident, to understand how to communicate effectively with different folks, and also have a shared vision with a group of men,” Ramey says.

On the other hand, he recognizes how little firefighters like him were getting paid in comparison to their counterparts, and when he first signed up, he says he “didn’t really know what I was getting myself into.”

A 2018 TIME report found that incarcerated firefighters were, at the time, four times more likely to experience object-induced injuries, such as cuts, bruises, dislocations and fractures, compared with professional firefighters working on the same fires. Inmates were also more than eight times as likely to be injured after inhaling smoke and particulates compared with other firefighters.

For Ramey, the work is making sure that incarcerated firefighters are not just utilized in times of extreme need, but that they have pathways to employment after their release and mentorship along the way as well.