California severely short on firefighting crews after COVID-19 lockdown at prison camps

BY RYAN SABALOW AND JASON POHL

As California enters another dangerous fire season, the COVID-19 pandemic has depleted the ranks of inmate fire crews that are a key component of the state’s efforts to battle out-of-control wildfires

This week, state prison officials announced they had placed 12 of the state’s 43 inmate fire camps on lockdown due to a massive outbreak at a Northern California prison in Lassen County that serves as the training center for fire crews. 

Until the lockdown lifts, only 30 of the state’s 77 inmate crews are available to fight a wildfire in the north state, prison officials said.

California’s incarcerated firefighters have for decades been the state’s primary firefighting “hand crews,” and the shortage has officials scrambling to come up with replacement firefighters in a dry season that is shaping up to be among the most extreme in years. The state is hunting for bulldozer crews and enlisting teams that normally clear brush as replacements. 

Inmate crews are among the first on the scene at fires large and small across the state. Name a major wildfire in recent years — from the devastating wine country and Thomas fires in 2017 to the massive Carr and Camp fires the following year — and inmates were there, on the ground cutting fire breaks around evacuated homes.

Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/fires/article243977827.html#storylink=cpy