01-14-2025, 12:31 PM
The prisoner fire crews in California are all voluntary.
The California Conservation (fire) Camp program has been training, and using, incarcerated personnel to fire wildland and forest fires since at the 1940's. Prisoners do earn wages for their service, although advocates argue that, given the difficulty, and very real danger, posed by such service, the pay is little better than "slave wages".
On a different track: I attended the Art Center College in Pasadea, California back in the late 1970's. With something of an admittedly morbid curiosity, I have been trying to track the advancement of the Eaton Fire's eastern edge as it slowly eats its way toward my old school. So far, luckily, it seems that the 210 freeway has served as an effective firebreak, protecting the campus from harm.
However, although I do remember the address, I am pretty certain that the small apartment I rented in Pasadena while attending the Center, has been obliterated to ash and rumble.
It is a strange feeling.
The California Conservation (fire) Camp program has been training, and using, incarcerated personnel to fire wildland and forest fires since at the 1940's. Prisoners do earn wages for their service, although advocates argue that, given the difficulty, and very real danger, posed by such service, the pay is little better than "slave wages".
On a different track: I attended the Art Center College in Pasadea, California back in the late 1970's. With something of an admittedly morbid curiosity, I have been trying to track the advancement of the Eaton Fire's eastern edge as it slowly eats its way toward my old school. So far, luckily, it seems that the 210 freeway has served as an effective firebreak, protecting the campus from harm.
However, although I do remember the address, I am pretty certain that the small apartment I rented in Pasadena while attending the Center, has been obliterated to ash and rumble.
It is a strange feeling.
