Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Breathing Fire
Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California's Wildfires | Jaime Lowe
5 posts | 2 read | 2 to read
A dramatic, revelatory account of the female inmate firefighters who battle California wildfires. Shawna was overcome by the claustrophobia, the heat, the smoke, the fire, all just down the canyon and up the ravine. She was feeling the adrenaline, but also the terror of doing something for the first time. She knew how to run with a backpack; they had trained her physically. But that’s not training for flames. That’s not live fire. California’s fire season gets hotter, longer, and more extreme every year — fire season is now year-round. Of the thousands of firefighters who battle California’s blazes every year, roughly 30 percent of the on-the-ground wildland crews are inmates earning a dollar an hour. Approximately 200 of those firefighters are women serving on all-female crews. In Breathing Fire, Jaime Lowe expands on her revelatory work for The New York Times Magazine. She has spent years getting to know dozens of women who have participated in the fire camp program and spoken to captains, family and friends, correctional officers, and camp commanders. The result is a rare, illuminating look at how the fire camps actually operate — a story that encompasses California’s underlying catastrophes of climate change, economic disparity, and historical injustice, but also draws on deeply personal histories, relationships, desires, frustrations, and the emotional and physical intensity of firefighting. Lowe’s reporting is a groundbreaking investigation of the prison system, and an intimate portrayal of the women of California’s Correctional Camps who put their lives on the line, while imprisoned, to save a state in peril.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
rsteve388
post image
Pickpick

Wow what a profound and heartbreaking story About the inmates that fight the California wildfires. This audiobook includes a section with recordings of the women mentioned in the story. It was a great eye opening story. Highly recommend if you are interested in understanding the people who are imprisoned to fight wildfires.

#NFN21 #NFN #NonFicNovember

blurb
rsteve388
post image
Soubhiville Nice! I thought Friday Black was brilliant. And How the Word Was Passed was eye opening. 2y
31 likes1 comment
blurb
rsteve388
post image

#NovelNovember My Goals for this next week is to listen to three audiobooks and read two graphic novels that I recently bought. I'll post my.list later.

Feel free to join us

blurb
rsteve388
post image

Hey #NFN participants don't forget to fill out the point form which you can find here.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1lV1HfhRuZG42A_IvALzO2mxyKDNXwJBbrOu4C6YcKXc/edi...

Bookwormjillk Done! 2y
alisiakae Do journal articles count, or just books? 2y
rsteve388 Just books, podcasts and documentaries and Today I learned Posts. So no journal articles. I'll add them next year. 2y
tdrosebud Done! 2y
23 likes4 comments
review
MaggieCarr
post image
Pickpick

It's not quite what I expected, but I did enjoy learning about the firefighting program, since I didn't even know it existed let alone how it operates. One thing I learned was that with California‘s fire season is year-round and roughly 30% of the on-the-ground wildland crews are inmates earning a dollar an hour. Approximately 200 of those firefighters are women serving on all-female crews with only a few weeks of training.

kaysworld1 One you might like is smoke jumper very raw and honest book I loved it 😊 3y
29 likes1 stack add2 comments