PRISONERS RISKING THEIR LIVES FIGHTING CALIFORNIA FIRES

THEY ARE RISKING THEIR LIVES TO SAVE THE LIVES OF STRANGERS. WHATEVER THE WRONG THAT PUT THEM IN PRISON, THEY WERE NOT SENTENCED TO DEATH. SURELY THEY DESERVE SERIOUS RESPECT FOR FIGHTING THE FIRES.

The death toll from the Camp Fire in California has risen to at least 63, with 631 people reported missing. As California continues to battle the deadliest fire in the state's history, we turn to the hidden heroes on the front lines the raging climate-fueled wildfires: prisoner firefighters. At least 1,500 of the 9,400 firefighters currently battling fires in California are incarcerated. They make just a dollar an hour battling on the front lines but are rarely eligible to get jobs as firefighters after their release. In September, the Democracy Now! team traveled to the Delta Conservation Camp about an hour north of San Francisco, a low-security prison where more than 100 men are imprisoned. We interviewed incarcerated firefighters who had just returned from a 24-hour shift fighting the Snell Fire in Napa County.

As the death toll from California's Camp Fire continues to rise, we end today's show with the hidden heroes on the front lines of the raging climate-fueled wildfires: prisoners firefighters. At least 1,500 of the 9,400 firefighters currently battling fires in California are incarcerated. They make a dollar an hour battling on the front lines but are rarely eligible to get jobs as firefighters after their release. Cal Fire reports five firefighters were injured during the Camp Fire's first 24 hours, two of them prisoner firefighters who suffered burns. According to some estimates, California saves up to $100 million a year by using prison labor to fight its biggest environmental problem. Prison firefighters earn time off of their sentences for good behavior, typically two days off for each day they fight fires. But critics of the program say the state is exploiting prisoners' eagerness to earn time for early release.

AMY GOODMAN: I also spoke with prisoner firefighter Marty Vinson.

 

AMY GOODMAN: Do you think of yourself as a hero?

 

MARTY VINSON: I like to look at myself as somebody that I want to be here for whoever—like, whoever needs me, I want to be there for them. Just last night on this fire, we had somebody who came back not too long ago where the terrain of where we was climbing up, cutting line, there were just too many loose boulders. And, you know, we always try to do what we have to do, but still provide safety while doing it. And it's just one of those situations where it's no one's fault, but it happens. And while they was cutting line, a boulder actually fell and hit him. And he popped something in his knee, and it just swelled up.

 

And it came to a point where we didn't really have no answer to what are we going to do, how are we going to get him out of here. It's night. They don't do no airlifts at night. They don't want nothing in the air at night. So it led to the possibility of us just bedding down at the bottom of this creek and wait until like morning. And it was just something where—it's a natural thing about me: I want to be there for people. So I just volunteered and said, "Well, look, me, personally, I don't feel like it's relevant for us to stay down here." So I just volunteered to take my pack off and carry him up the mountain.

 

AMY GOODMAN: So you carried him up from below, near the creek?

 

MARTY VINSON: Yes. The first part was maybe the worst part. It was real steep. A lot of people didn't think it would actually happen like that, but it was something that I just pushed myself to say I'm going to do, and I got it done. We went going straight uphill to having to go sidehill, which that was another cautious area, because the road was probably like two feet wide. So it was something—it took its time. It went from 2:00 in the morning to like almost 5:00 in the morning, but we got him up there, and now he's back here.

 

AMY GOODMAN: You're risking your life here.

 

MARTY VINSON: It's exactly what's going on. Everything we do, you know, no one's really promised to come back.


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