Breathing Fire Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California's Wildfires

Jaime Lowe, Frankie Corzo

eAudio - 2021

This program features a bonus clip with archival recordings from several of the inmate firefighters and the author.A dramatic, revelatory account of the female inmate firefighters who battle California wildfires.Shawna was overcome by the claustrophobia, the heat, the smoke, the fire, all just down the canyon and up the ravine. She was feeling the adrenaline, but also the terror of doing something for the first time. She knew how to run with a backpack; they had trained her physically. But that's not training for flames. That's not live fire.California's fire season gets hotter, longer, and more extreme every year — fire season is now year-round. Of the thousands of firefighters who battle California's blazes every yea...r, roughly 30 percent of the on-the-ground wildland crews are inmates earning a dollar an hour. Approximately 200 of those firefighters are women serving on all-female crews.In Breathing Fire, Jaime Lowe expands on... more