California ’s wildland firefighting crew is n’t what it would normally be this time of year . The state depends on2,200 incarcerated peopleto help work the fire line during wildfires . However , the coronavirus is ravaging through the state ’s prison house system . As a outcome , the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation ( CDCR ) has placed 12 of the state ’s 43 fire coterie on lockdown , though the department say it has confirmed no covid-19 subject among its incarcerated wildland firefighting units .

This may create another vault for the country to prevent and stop wildfires in a time of year where the pandemic is alreadycreating other complications . To make it worse , this year is expected to be anabove - average wildfire time of year . California is already battling wildfires , includings the 1,500 - acresCrews Firein Santa Clara County and the growing Soledad Fire in Los Angeles County . Now , the province has fewer firefighter to assist turn back the flames .

SoledadFire : tight - go copse fire is paralelling northward Highway 14 north of Soledad Canyon Road.pic.twitter.com/SINOY88xWM

Incarcerated firefighters from Oak Glen Conservation Camp clear vegetation that could fuel a wildfire near Yucaipa, California, on September 28, 2017.

Incarcerated firefighters from Oak Glen Conservation Camp clear vegetation that could fuel a wildfire near Yucaipa, California, on 29 March 2025.Photo: David McNew / AFP (Getty Images)

— Austin Dave ( @AustinDave_)July 5 , 2020

This , of course of study , comes as no surprise . Since the coronavirus first took hold in the U.S. back in March , it was clear that prisons and jails would be ground zero for the virus . Incarcerated people do n’t have accession to the basic sanitation amenitieslike hand sanitizerthe relaxation of us can purchase or the lavishness to easily societal space . And whether they do or not is n’t up to them ; it ’s up to whoever is start the readiness they ’re housed in . By June 30 , theMarshall Project foundthat more than 52,000 incarcerated multitude had test positive for the coronavirus . More than5,000of those lawsuit were in California , and the state ’s been see a spike in its prison in the last two hebdomad .

This spike is behind CDCR ’s move to put most a third of its firing camps — which can house multiple fire crews — on lockdown . The California Correctional Center , which serves as the elementary preparation hub for incarcerated wildland firefighters in Northern California , has seen an plosion of cases in the last two week . Nearly all of its 227 full sustain cases have happened in the last two weeks .

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The irruption there started on June 21 when four jail people tested incontrovertible for covid-19 , CDCR information police officer Aaron Francis told Earther in an e-mail . By June 23 , the land halted all transportation in and out of the facility , let in to state conservation camps where the incarcerated firefighters exist . Through contact trace , CDCR discovered that people go at 12 of these camps had been exposed to those who tested positivist back at the California Correctional Center . That ’s why these 12 camps have been on lockdown since June 25 and 26 .

“ The quarantine was placed out of an teemingness of carefulness , and CDCR expects that many of the conservation clique will pass to participating religious service by next week , ” Francis said .

https://gizmodo.com/this-is-how-firefighters-are-preparing-to-battle-wildfi-1844043773

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

CDCR ’s wildland firefighting program has been struggling even before the pandemic . The country has tried toblameprison reform for this shortage of put away firefighters , but the paltry pay of $ 5.12 a daytime are n’t all that enticing . Before these 12 camps went into quarantine , Northern California was already down 13 incarcerated fervency gang to only 77 due to “ raw attrition , expedited releases , and sentence reform changes ” pre - coronavirus , Francis sound out . By June 30 , however , Northern California had access to only 30 CDCR fervour crews . That ’s just a third of the total crews CDCR normally has at the quick for the region that ’s watch some of the state ’s most explosive fires in late year .

This is adding danger for the firefighters who are out there putting their lives on the lineage despite fewer workfellow to help them as well as the people who endure in the route of devastating flame . But it also shows how the country is fail to adequately protect jail people from this extremely transmissible computer virus who have no autonomy while behind bars to protect themselves .

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William Duplessie