The Female Inmates Fighting California’s Wildfires
New York Magazine, July 8, 2021: The Female Inmates Fighting California’s Wildfires
“In 2017, on my way to meet female prison inmates who had been recruited to fight wildfires in California, I drove through Temecula, a region adjacent to the Palomar mountain range that has been dubbed the ‘Napa of Southern California.’ The mountains, like most parts of the state, are prone to earthquakes. They’re relatively young, punctuated by jagged rocks jutting out and up at odd angles. The south side of the 6,000-foot-high peaks was blanketed in purple sand verbena, white dune evening primroses, and orange poppies. In some years, drought years, the mountain flowers are sparse. But when heavy rains drench the area, as they did the year I visited, thick patches of orange and magenta and purple blossoms emerge adjacent to lime green grasses. The colors blurred into a quilt of neon petals. The superbloom. At the time, it was the pride of California, and Instagram. But heavy rains and growth worried fire experts. When the last drought ended with heavy rains, in 2010, the following fire season was even more extreme than the previous one. Rain caused more grass to grow in places it ordinarily didn’t, and when summer temperatures topped 100 degrees, as they routinely do in Temecula, that grass dried out and became kindling.”
Additional reading:
Los Angeles Times, June 4, 2021: Why is it still so hard for former prisoners to become firefighters in California?
The Denver Post, April 15, 2021: Colorado’s prison firefighters have a bridge to permanent employment under new law
The Marshall Project, October 1, 2020: Being a Prison Firefighter Taught Me to Save Lives
