KarunaNews Story

For three weeks, Jose Angel Amezcua was one of hundreds of incarcerated firefighters helping to battle the deadly LA fires. He was part of the Youth Offender Fire Camp Program at Growlersburg, a pilot program launched in 2023 that allowed young people under 26 to train as wildland firefighters, instead of being held in a high-security prison. He trained as a handcrew firefighter, creating firelines to contain wildfires and clearing vegetation with hand tools, before starting to fight fires. Over time, he became a sawyer, someone who cuts down trees with a chainsaw. At firecamp, rehabilitation and reentry preparation classes with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition helped him get ready to come home, and his 10-year sentence was reduced to 5½ years. Now, he is working to expunge his record. Since the fires, California has raised wages for incarcerated firefighters and made the Growlersburg Fire Camp program permanent.