As the California wildfires continue to rage on, Kim Kardashian is using her platform to highlight the incarcerated firefighters battling the flames.
“I have spent the last week watching my city burning,” Kim Kardashian posted on January 12, roughly five days after the fires first erupted on January 7. During that time, Kardashian says she’s been speaking to “many firefighters who are up all night long using every ounce of their strength to save our community.”
After thanking the various Los Angeles fire departments for their efforts to contain the flames, which have claimed at least 24 lives and forced 100,000 residents to evacuate their homes, the future lawyer and criminal justice reform advocate pointed out that there are also “hundreds of incarcerated firefighters risking their lives to save us.”
As Kardashian reminded her 358 million followers, inmates could make up nearly a third of firefighters attempting to end the destruction and devastation thanks to the controversial Conservation (Fire) Camp Program—a partnership between California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), CAL FIRE, and the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACFD).
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As of January 13, The Hill reports that 931 incarcerated firefighters have joined the efforts in California. According to Time magazine, inmates who participate in the program can reduce their sentences and earn “between $5.80 and $10.24 per day” based on skill level, with an additional $1 per hour during “emergencies.” Even that pay-scale is relatively new, as the rates were doubled in 2023.
Per the Time report, inmate firefighters are more than four times as likely to be be injured on the job than professional firefighters and more than eight times as likely to retain injuries related to smoke inhalation.
