{"id":2321,"date":"2017-12-15T04:25:50","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T12:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=2321"},"modified":"2017-12-15T04:25:50","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T12:25:50","slug":"inmates-are-part-of-an-army-of-firefighters-battling-a-monster-that-just-keeps-growing-los-angeles-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=2321","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Inmates are part of an army of firefighters battling a &#8216;monster&#8217; that just keeps growing&#8221;, Los Angeles Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"trb_ar_la\">\n<aside class=\"trb_em\" data-content-id=\"95443879\" data-content-size=\"leadart\" data-content-type=\"image\" data-content-slug=\"la-1513264676-fg7npdyvb9-snap-image\" data-content-subtype=\"photo\" data-role=\"sc_item imgsize_ratiosizecontainer\" data-state=\"\">\n<div class=\"trb_em_m\">\n<div class=\"trb_em_r\" data-role=\"lightbox_metadata\">\n<div class=\"trb_embed_related_credit_and_caption\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_embed_related_credit_and_caption\"><span class=\"trb_ar_by_nm_au\" data-byline-withoutby=\"\">Joseph Serna and Joe Mozingo,\u00a0<\/span>Contact Reporters, December 15, 2017<\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_embed_related_credit_and_caption\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_embed_related_credit_and_caption\">For well over a week, hundreds of inmates have chain-sawed through relentless thickets of chaparral, cutting lines through the backcountry to thwart the fire\u2019s sudden rushes at homes.<\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_embed_related_credit_and_caption\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_embed_related_credit_and_caption\">On Thursday, they were deep in the Los Padres National Forest, covered in wood grit, soot and sweat, as the Thomas fire continued to grow \u2014 becoming the fourth-largest in modern California history.<\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_embed_related_credit_and_caption\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_embed_related_credit_and_caption\">In the morning, commanders stressed the dangers of the work and urged them to be careful, even while mopping up hot spots, cutting burned trees or striding though charred rubble.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_ar_bd\">\n<div class=\"trb_ar_page\" data-role=\"pagination_page\" data-content-page=\"1\">\n<p>Hours later, a San Diego fire engineer, Cory Iverson, died on the fire lines. The loss rippled through the army of 8,000 fire personnel \u2014 both professionals and inmates \u2014 on the scene. Some lined the road as Iverson\u2019s body was loaded into a hearse and taken from the fire zone.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"trb_ar_sponsoredmod\" data-v-ntidd=\"1069598\" data-adloader-networktype=\"nativo\" data-withinviewport-options=\"bottomOffset=100\" data-load-method=\"trb.vendor.nativo.init\" data-load-type=\"method\">\n<aside id=\"ntv1069598-211695-83657\" class=\"trb_ar_nt ntv-moap ntv1069598-211695-83657\"><\/aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>For 11 days, they\u2019ve been battling a sharply uneven battle against a devilish fusion of dry wind, fault-crumpled terrain and desiccated vegetation.<\/p>\n<p>Playing some of the hardest roles are the inmate hand crews, which make up about 20% of the firefighters here.<\/p>\n<p>On a ridge above Montecito on Thursday, they worked in crews of 15, leaders shouting orders, scarifying a ribbon of mountain too steep and craggy for any bulldozer.<\/p>\n<p>The winds had abated, as they had many times before, but the inmates were racing the clock, chopping away at ceanothus trunks and gnarled manzanita roots with specialized saws, picks, shovels, rakes, axes.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday night, forecasters predicted Santa Barbara\u2019s notorious sundowner winds, which howl down the mountain canyons to the coast, driving flames and embers with them.<\/p>\n<p>Because the wildfire has sprawled so widely, the task of finding the critical points to cut it off had become profoundly difficult.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis thing is 60 miles long and 40 miles wide,&#8221;\u201dsaid Tim Chavez, a fire behavior analyst with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. \u201cThere&#8217;s a lot of fire out there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No day has been the same on the front lines. On Saturday, the winds calmed. The heat rose in a column, carrying smoke and soot, mushrooming into a pyrocumulus cloud 30,000 feet high. On the ground, it was quiet and still.<\/p>\n<p>Gerardo Moran, 41, and his fellow convicts, thought the worst was over. They were loading the truck about 2 a.m. Sunday to head back to camp and rest, as the temperature dropped.<\/p>\n<p>Then the weight of all that material in the atmosphere collapsed.<\/p>\n<p>A violent downdraft hit the ground and blew in every direction, fanning waves of flame.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCome on, tools out!\u201d a Cal Fire captain shouted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never knew we were gonna be in the eye of the storm right there,\u201d Moran recalled this week. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty intense \u2014 the biggest adrenaline rushes I\u2019ve ever had, right there on the fire line.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fire scorched another 50,000 acres during that bout. But Moran and the inmates were able to save a horse ranch of Highway 150, which he was happy about.<\/p>\n<p>Established in 1943, the inmate fire program employs roughly 3,800 prisoners across California, paying them $2 a day in the off-season \u2014 when they clear flood control channels and hiking trails \u2014 and $1 an hour when they\u2019re fighting fires.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always been a fan of the program,\u201d said Mark Brown, a deputy fire chief in Marin County and operations commander on the Thomas fire. \u201cThey work their butts off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For the inmates, the danger is obvious \u2014 four inmates have died since the program began, including two in the last two years. And some have manipulated the program \u2014 in October, an inmate escaped when he walked off the fire line while fighting a blaze in Orange County but was captured on Halloween in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>But most benefit by getting out in the wilderness \u2014 away from prison-yard intrigue \u2014 learning an occupation, making money, feeling a sense of purpose, and getting time off their sentences.<\/p>\n<p>Proposition 57, passed by voters last year, increased the credit for time served for those in the program.<\/p>\n<p>Inmates who are accepted into the program must undergo physical and mental evaluations ahead of training, according to the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. Many types of offenders, such as documented gang members, are ineligible.<\/p>\n<p>Moran began serving a 14-year, four-month sentence in June 2014 for possession of a controlled substance for sale, vehicle theft and assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer.<\/p>\n<p>In prison, he had to work and show good behavior to get to minimum-security status \u2014 and a chance to join the fire camp.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI figured this would be the best way to serve my community,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the time off. That\u2019s a big one. I got 27 months off my sentence for this. I just want to get back to my family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He started this year, and fought in the wine country fires in October.<\/p>\n<p>In Ventura County, inmate Lanny Mosley, who is in his third fire season, has been showing Moran the ropes.<\/p>\n<p>Both are \u201cswampers,\u201d the unofficial right hand of the state fire captain who manages them on the fire line.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve done this long enough to where I trust the captains, they\u2019re constantly watching out for us,\u201d said Mosley, 52, a second-striker who began his eight-year, four-month sentence for vehicle theft in August 2014.<\/p>\n<p>If something were to happen to the captain, the swamper would be the one to radio for help and manage the situation until others arrived.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said they\u2019ve seen countless examples of residents waving thank-you signs at inmate crews or coming up to them and thanking them for their work, sometimes knowing who they are, sometimes not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really rewarding when a crying woman and her children come up to you and say, \u2018Thank you for saving our homes,\u2019 \u201d said Moran. \u201cThat\u2019s payoff in itself right here. It just feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The occasional misery is worth it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing in the woods, being in the mountains \u2014 it\u2019s just a freedom that you don\u2019t get in prison,\u201d Mosley said. \u201cBehind the wall you\u2019ll never see the stuff we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat view of the stars is amazing,\u201d Moran said. \u201cThe skyline to the ocean. It\u2019s something you wish you were with your family for, but hey, it\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-ln-inmate-firefighters-20171215-story.html\">Los Angeles Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joseph Serna and Joe Mozingo,\u00a0Contact Reporters, December 15, 2017 For well over a week, hundreds of inmates have chain-sawed through relentless thickets of chaparral, cutting lines through the backcountry to thwart the fire\u2019s sudden rushes at homes. On Thursday, they were deep in the Los Padres National Forest, covered in wood grit, soot and sweat, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2322,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321\/revisions\/2322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}