Inmates Train For Duty In Advance Of Wildfire Season

PHOTO GALLERY INCLUDED

During local emergencies, Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department relies on highly trained personnel – including some low-risk felony offenders.

On Tuesday, more than 80 members of inmate fire crews drilled on steep ridges and in dense chaparral between Poppet Flats and Pine Cove, in the San Jacinto Mountains, to prepare for the coming fire season.

The inmate crews came from camps near Oak Glen, Hemet and other locations in Riverside County.

During emergencies, the incarcerated felons may be called to any location in the county, including the cities of Lake Elsinore and Wildomar, which contract their fire services through Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department.

Crews of about 17 inmates each took turns lining up for inspection on Tuesday, hauling gear up and down sandy slopes, and cutting 6-foot-wide corridors through dense scrub oak and other fire-friendly plant species near the U.S. Forest Service Vista Grande Fire Station near Banning.

The Esperanza Fire of October 2006, set by a convicted arsonist in Cabazon, burned near the same areas used for drills Tuesday. Five Forest Service firefighters from Engine 57 died in the first hours of the Esperanza Fire as they tried to protect an unoccupied home below Twin Pines.

The need for practice and teamwork in close quarters was evident on Tuesday, even without live fire as part of the drills. In thick stands of chaparral as high as 20 feet, some crew members wielded snarling chainsaws within inches of others clearing fresh-cut brush. Others worked with shovels, rakes and axes.

Most of the inmates selected for fire crew duty are considered low-risk felony offenders without any violent crime convictions, Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department Public Information Officer Mike Smith said.

Cal Fire is authorized to operate 39 camps statewide that house more than 4,300 inmates and wards, in conjunction with the California Department of Corrections and the Division of Juvenile Justice, according to Cal Fire officials.

The numbers translate to more than 190 hand crews who respond to emergencies including fires, floods and search-and-rescue operations, and perform an estimated 2.5 million hours of emergency response work each year, according to Cal Fire.