This summer, only 90 of the state prison’s 192 resident fire teams are available to help remove brushes and perform other important arson tasks, according to the California Department of State Forest Management and Fire Protection.
While a number of internal firefighters are infected, other crews are under quarantine duties. Some arsonists have also been released from prison in recent weeks to reduce overcrowding in prisons and fire camps.
In all, four of the six prisons trained by arsonists have suffered coronavirus outbreaks of more than 200 cases each, including the California Institution for Women in Corona, which trains female arsonists. That prison had 417 cases.
The shortage has forced the state to call in members of the National Guard and hire civilian replacements for the crew, officials said.
Crew members – who can earn up to $ 5 a day, plus $ 1 an hour to fight fires – have been stretched for several weeks, said Michelle Garcia, program coordinator at a Venture County Inmate Fire Training Center.
“We are being ignored and we are being overlooked,” she said.
Ms Garcia said crew members from the same water spigot had been drinking and that hand washing, social distance and wearing face masks were though.
“Once this fire call comes, it’s first fire,” she said. “Fire does nothing about COVID.”
Report was contributed by Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Kellen Browning, Maria Cramer, Henry Fountain, Thomas Fuller, Rebecca Griesbach, Lucy Tompkins, Maura Turcotte en Alan Yuhas.
