Felons and Fires

Fighting Wildfires to Start a New Life

By Andy Valencia

Unless otherwise noted, all photos courtesy of CAL FIRE

I was in Cafe Luna and overhead a discussion about prison inmates being forced into firefighting in California. It’s a small world, as I have a nephew – I’ll call him “Ben” because that’s his name – who was in the California state penitentiary system, and did indeed fight fires. But I didn’t remember it being a bad thing, so I thought I’d call him up and see if there’s a story worth sharing.

Ben started as an orphan in Kazakhstan. He remembers very little of it – mostly the cold and misery. Adopted via an international agency, he grew up in an affluent California city.

As we well know here on Vashon, material prosperity automatically delivers neither happiness nor a successful life. In Ben’s case, he felt like his social circle guided him into a downward spiral. Drugs and crime started to appear in his life, with his parents doing whatever they could to change the looming disaster.

The details don’t really matter. Police trouble followed police trouble, culminating in a four-year sentence in California’s state penitentiary system. A felony conviction with years of prison time is a hope-killer for many, but for Ben this was where his life started to turn around.

His prison intake counselor saw that this was Ben’s first serious prison time, which gave the counselor some latitude in how to process him. Would Ben be interested in working in a program under the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE)? He’d be doing everything from clean-up to fire risk mitigation – even supporting active firefighting. In exchange, Ben would be in a “camp” rather than a traditional prison, and he’d also earn a modest reduction in his sentence.

Even as he had received his sentence, Ben knew that life was too short to spend it the way things were going. Who wants to be a “caged animal?” His term. He had enough experience with incarceration to know that he’d far prefer living with more fresh air and less steel and concrete. Add in a reduced sentence, and it sounded like his best option. He accepted the CAL FIRE deal.

It was still six or so months in a traditional prison setting before the wheels of the bureaucracy finally moved Ben to his initial training camp. The first week was focused on health and physical fitness assessment, the second week was classroom-based, and the third week introduced them to their tools – things like shovels and protective gear – along with testing their ability to load it all up and hike out to a remote site.

Ben, even through all his ups and downs, had always been fit. Appreciating the nearest thing to freedom available to him, he watched as others scored drugs, got caught, and washed out. He easily made it through the training, and started to serve on teams being dispatched out to CAL FIRE projects. It might be cutting a fire break, or hauling away brush. Ben found that he enjoyed a little freedom, especially when it involved meaningful work that served the public.

And then he worked his first actual fire. His crew unloaded, and found himself surprisingly close to a nearby hillside on fire. They didn’t do the actual firefighting, but they were right there with the crews, taking on whatever tasks helped get the job done. His first work near an uncontrolled fire, Ben found that he wasn’t afraid in the slightest.

The very next week, Ben approached his captain and lieutenant, and for the first time asked if it would be possible to become a career firefighter with CAL FIRE? A 2020 law change in California made this possible, and he was told about the Ventura Training Center, a program designed to train post-incarceration inmates who had worked in a program like Ben’s. At the end 18 months of training, graduates from the program would be eligible for career firefighting jobs.

Getting into the program wouldn’t be easy. Ben’s command chain needed to give him a reference, and they were very selective in who received those. The success or failure of candidates at Ventura directly reflected back on them, so it was always better to err on the side of withholding their recommendation. Ben understood, but he now had a goal for his life. He kept his head down, worked hard, and ultimately earned their recommendation.

A convict with Ben’s status would usually be discharged directly out of their work camp. Unfortunately, a weight-training accident during his free time damaged his toe so badly he had to go back into prison. It wasn’t a reflection of wrongdoing; it was just the only way a convict could get serious medical care.

Ben finally walked out the gate of the prison a free man – only to be met by an Orange County deputy with an arrest warrant! In the chaos leading up to his conviction and four-year sentence, this outstanding warrant had slipped right by him. Apparently, all the systems in California talk to each other, so his impending release caused all agencies to check for outstanding warrants. Ben got a couple of breaths of fresh air as a free man from prison before his arrest and transport back to a county jail.

But Ben stuck to his plan. In a situation which could have dragged on indefinitely, he guesses that a judge or prosecutor gave him a break. In any case, he didn’t return to drugs or crime, and in due time he finally cleared up his legal status and entered the Ventura program.

Unlike so many other employers, CAL FIRE has no problem hiring ex-convicts. Ben graduated from Ventura, and immediately got a job with them. He’s now worked there for more than two years, and responded to so many fires that he’s lost count. Some are tiny 1-2 acre incidents, but some are much larger. His biggest so far was the Park Fire near Chico, which burned across 671 square miles. One of his proudest moments was helping a National Guard unit operate as a part of the CAL FIRE response.

What’s next for Ben? It seems like he’s found his calling. His next big promotion is to the position of Engineer, followed by Captain. He thinks that’s as far up the ladder as he cares to climb, because above that, all he sees is paperwork. It’s going to be Ben versus California wildfires for years to come.

On the personal front, Ben has a partner. He hopes to save up, get a house, and have a family. It has been a long, winding road from an orphanage in Kazakhstan, through prison and firefighting, and he’s finally looking at the traditional American dream. He feels like he’s still catching up, but he’s “pretty happy.”