June 24, 2011
Inmate firefighters are crucial to battling wildfires
Fifteen firefighter handcrews worked in the June heat with several pounds of gear to cut a line in a hillside, preventing a wildfire from spreading to homes in the rural area of the Marianas.
They worked with hand shovels, axes and chain saws in nearly vertical conditions.
Smoke rose from the brush only a few dozen feet away from the crews clad in orange, busy at their tasks.
The men and women perched on the hillside were well-trained fire personnel — personnel that happened to be incarcerated...
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