![]() The number of inmates eligible to work at the camps has been steadily decreasing in recent years. “CDCR medical staff determined that the first test was the result of a false positive,” Francis said. On Monday, Francis said the inmate received a second test and it came back negative. He said that as of Friday only one inmate firefighter had tested positive. The locked-down inmate firefighters are now receiving daily health screenings, Francis said. ![]() Two days later, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation suspended all movement in and out of the prison, including sending inmates to the conservation camps where inmate firefighters are based, said Aaron Francis, a spokesman for the state prison system.Īs of Friday, at least 220 inmates at the Susanville prison have tested positive for the disease in the past 14 days, according to the state’s online testing dashboard.Ī dozen conservation camps in Northern California were placed on mandatory quarantine after prison health officials determined that inmates were exposed to the virus at the prison before being transferred out to the camps, Francis said. On June 21, inmates housed at California Correctional Center tested positive for COVID-19. “Thankfully, we haven’t had anything too big to deal with yet.” “We’re doing our best to plan ahead,” Head said. The state also wants to secure more firefighting aircraft, and is working with state and federal governments, the National Guard and the California Conservation Corps to find more firefighters to replace the shrinking ranks of inmate crews. The state also has approved using Cal Fire employees on the state’s “fuels crews” - teams who clear brush and trees to create fire breaks around communities - for “initial attack fire activity,” said Battalion Chief Amy Head, a Cal Fire spokeswoman. State fire officials are currently working on finding more bulldozers and creating new hand crews using seasonal firefighters to do the work the inmates once did. They’re supervised in the field typically by a Cal Fire captain, but sometimes a correctional officer will go with them on out-of-county assignments, or on local assignments located near residential areas.Ĭalifornia Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials acknowledged losing inmate hand crews to the disease outbreak is going to pose a significant challenge this summer. Identified by their orange fire uniforms, inmates typically do the critically important and dangerous job of using chainsaws and hand tools to cut firelines around properties and neighborhoods during wildfires.Įach crew has 17 inmates. “To have that many (conservation camps) locked down, there are only a few camps left in the north that are going to be able to fight fires,” said Mike Hampton, a retired corrections officer who worked at the camps and served as the fire camp system’s union president. Any loss of the crews to a COVID-19 outbreak portends a major challenge to the state’s firefighting workforce as California’s blast furnace summer and fall fire season get underway.Ĭal Fire has around 6,500 year-round employees - a number that expands to around 9,000 during the fire season when seasonal firefighters are hired. They’re stationed at the minimum security fire camps in 27 counties. There are about 2,200 certified inmate firefighters who do the job 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. Inmate crews are among the first on the scene at fires large and small across the state. The state is hunting for bulldozer crews and enlisting teams that normally clear brush as replacements. 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.Ĭalifornia’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. ![]() 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. 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
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