As fires continue to blaze across Los Angeles, more than 12,000 personnel have been deployed to support the ongoing firefight. Among those attempting to quell these fires are incarcerated persons working in a three-way partnership between the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), CAL FIRE, and the Los Angeles County Fire Department LACFD.
The current state of the fires is that at least 11 people are thought to have died, according to the Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s Office. “Unfortunately I think the death toll will rise,” L.A. Sheriff Robert Luna said on Jan. 9. And the sheer volume of land destroyed is massive. As of Saturday morning—close to 36,000 acres have been decimated.
Read More: L.A. Fires Show the Reality of Living in a World with 1.5°C of Warming
As of Friday morning, 939 incarcerated firefighters have been working “around the clock cutting fire lines and removing fuel behind structures to slow fire spread,” CDCR told TIME in an emailed statement. This includes 110 members of a support staff helping the firefighters.
Here’s everything you need to know about how and why inmates are currently fighting the L.A. fires.
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Incarcerated firefighters have been working all week
Incarcerated firefighters have been on the frontlines of the multiple fires breaking out in Los Angeles County and Southern California since earlier this week. On Wednesday, the CDCR told the Washington Post it had deployed 395 imprisoned firefighters to the frontlines. A day later, that number had nearly doubled to 783. The department said the crews also have 88 staff members supporting them. By Friday morning, almost 1,000 firefighters from the program were fighting the blazes.
Read More: How to Help Victims of the Los Angeles Wildfires
A look into the program making this happen—and what the firefighters can gain
The…
