Those who are fighting the blaze

Robert Reich

Friends,

The two biggest fires raging in Los Angeles have so far killed at least 16 people and destroyed entire neighborhoods from the inland hills to the Pacific Coast.

Firefighting crews have contained more of the Eaton Fire and have largely stopped the Palisades Fire’s momentum toward a road of homes in Mandeville Canyon, a section of the Brentwood neighborhood.

But the fire risk remains high in the region, with winds picking up again on Sunday morning.

The L.A. fires have already destroyed some of the most expensive homes in the world, including an 18-bedroom mansion that featured sweeping views out to the Pacific Ocean and was worth $125 million, owned by Luminar Technologies CEO Austin Russell. It had contained a “Nobu-designed chef’s kitchen,” a 20-seat theater, a temperature-controlled wine cellar in the basement, a retractable roof “for stargazing,” a state-of-the-art swimming pool, and two panic rooms. Nothing remains of the house.

We owe a great debt to the firefighting crews now battling the blazes.

Those crews, not incidentally, include more than 939 inmates from California prisons, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The department says they are there voluntarily and are paid between $5.80 and $10.24 per day. But it’s not clear what “voluntary” means in a prison system like California’s in which prisoners are required to work. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery “except as a punishment for crime,” which for more than a century has been an open invitation for exploitative prison labor.

A 2018 Time investigation found that prison inmate firefighters are at a higher risk for serious injuries and more than four times as likely to get cuts, bruises, or broken bones compared to professional firefighters working the same fires. They were also more than eight times as likely to face injuries after inhaling smoke, ash, and other debris compared with other firefighters, the report said.

I hope you’ll pardon me if I remind you that Donald Trump just got away without a prison sentence for any of his convictions or alleged crimes, including his attempted coup against the United States. How do you think he’d do as an inmate firefighter in the hills around Los Angeles?

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