California’s Mountain Fire among many fought with imprisoned firefighters through unique program
The program includes 35 fire camps located across 25 counties in California, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
FILE: Firefighters make progress containing the Mountain Fire in Ventura County, California
FOX News reporter William La Jeunesse joined FOX Weather's Stephen Morgan and Marissa Torres after he spoke with people impacted by the fast-moving Mountain Fire.
Behind the scenes of smoke and flames, incarcerated individuals have volunteered to help keep California wildfires at bay and protect the communities where they live.
The volunteers are part of the Conservation (Fire) Camps Program, a program within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) that works in partnership with CAL FIRE and LAC FIRE.
The program includes 35 fire camps located across 25 counties in California, according to the CDCR. Fire camp participants work as hand crews to help CAL FIRE and LAC FIRE contain fires across the Golden State.
Incarcerated firefighters with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Fenner Canyon Conservation Camp take a break while battling the Mountain Fire in Moorpark, Calif., on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024.
(Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle / Getty Images)
To participate in the fire camps program, prisoners must first meet certain qualifications. For example, the crimes they have committed must be nonviolent, such as drug offenses. Automatic disqualifications include those who have committed sex offenses, arson or have an escape history.
Applicants must also pass a physical fitness test and complete CAL FIRE’s Firefighting Training program, which includes four days of classroom training and four days of field training by CAL FIRE staff, according to the CDCR.
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While fire camp participants work together to help manage wildfires, the work they do extends beyond firefighting.
Incarcerated firefighters.
(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation / FOX Weather)
"It is absolutely the best rehabilitative program out there, bar none," said Fred Money, Camps Liaison Captain with the CDCR’s Division of Adult Institutions. Money has been with CDCR for 30 years, first working in maximum security and then the fire camps, which he’d later oversee.
Those who join the crew get freedoms that don’t often come with traditional correctional facilities. Overseen by CDCR employees, the camps are minimum-security facilities that have no razor wire, no gun towers nor alarms.
"It is still a prison where we do still enforce rules and regulations, but our whole reason for being there is to give them a chance to rehabilitate and to treat them like a firefighter," Money said.
An incarcerated firefighter with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Antelope Conservation Camp Crew 4 constructs a hand line while battling the Thompson Fire in Oroville, Calif., Tuesday, July 2, 2024.
(Stephen Lam / San Francisco Chronicle / Getty Images)
Money said the camps also help reframe their perspectives on others and themselves, based on the work they do.
"They come in even thinking they know what respect is," he said. "A lot of that comes from gangs or maybe just within their family, but they get a whole different idea of what true respect is, over their hard work, over the services that they provide to the communities, from the communities, and pride in the crews."
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While participants assist with fires, they also respond to other emergencies, such as sandbagging duties during floods and digging out residents trapped in their homes due to heavy snowfall, Money said. When not responding to emergencies, crews will help maintain hiking trails in the State Parks and work on community service projects in areas close to their camps.
California Departent of Corrections inmate fire crews from Delta Conservation Camp work with Cal Fire to remove ground fuels and small trees along a road to help reduce the spread of fire in the event of a wildfire on May 12, 2014 in Yountville, California.
(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
That work also becomes an equalizing factor, particularly when it involves racial tensions among fellow prisoners, according to Money.
"I can tell you, all of that goes away in the camp system," he said. "They really, truly do develop a brotherhood over being a fire crew – and as a matter of fact, they're probably more likely to have an incident over maybe somebody not working hard enough to perform their fair share on the crew than they do or over any other reasons."
He noted that, of all the agencies CAL FIRE works with to put out flames, hand crews made up of those from the fire camps put in the most line hours.
Graduation from the Ventura Training Program.
(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation / FOX Weather)
Once they are released, participants in the fire camps also have the opportunity to continue working as firefighters. CDCR gives them a chance to receive further training with CAL FIRE, along with CDCR and California Conservation Corps, at the CDCR Ventura Training Program.
CDCR said many former camp firefighters have gone on to work with CAL FIRE, the U.S. Forest Service and interagency hotshot crews, allowing them to continue serving their communities and feeling the pride they've earned after being at the fire camps.
"That is really something that the camp system and, I think, California is actually telling these guys is, based off of their actions and what they're choosing to do and what they're volunteering for, that they still have value," Money said. "They may have come from a really bad background. They may have done some bad things in their career or in their life. They may have broken some rules and broken some laws. But based off of what their choices are now, they still have value."