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| Inmate crews provide fire help |
| By San Bernardino Sun |
| Published: 06/24/2005 |
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Calif. prison inmates jumped from helicopters into the teeth of the Paradise Fire while a fading orange sun made its way below the horizon. With the whir of chopper blades fading in the distance and carefully plotted escape routes on their minds, the inmates and their captain in the helitack crew would spend hours digging fire lines only to have the blaze jump them when the wind shifted just right. Jay Brooks, from Prado Conservation Camp in Chino, was among the inmates in the helitack crew dropped onto the front lines in the initial firefighting Wednesday. "The winds were blowing so hard we couldn't really attack," he said Thursday afternoon after finishing up another shift. "We had to run for the burn (area) to safety. We stood in there and watched (the fire) burn. That's all we could do." Scores of California inmate crews worked the fire, some toiling through the night Wednesday and into Thursday. Their faces masked of soot and sweat, they cut down trees, dug fire lines and initiated back burns with the light of a rising pearl moon and the orange glow of flames lighting their way Wednesday night. The airborne teams that winged their way through blowing smoke and embers jumped from airships to combat flames at the aggressive leading edges of the fire. They tried to overcome fatigue, hoping the next adrenaline rush would hit soon. The blaze refused to lay down after sunset Wednesday, as gusting winds hurled 50-foot flames across moonlit ridges. Anxious residents evacuated or watched the surreal tableau, transfixed for hours. Some offered water to the crews from their garden hoses. The consistent winds funneling through the valley transformed what began as a single-structure fire into a destructive force threatening neighborhoods over several square miles, fire commanders said. |
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