My wife and I were talking about this on the way into work this morning and she made the statement that 30% of the workers fighting the fires are convicted felons working through the prison system. That didn't surprise me too much because I knew they had programs like that in place. I am sympathetic to those who have lost loved ones or their homes, but I also feel like this is a byproduct of our own hubris. We build houses on top of each other and keep expanding out so that things like this happen. Forest fires have been happening for eons, they are a natural thing, but all this fuel allowing them to grow to immense proportions is not.
Are those felons getting pad a full salary with danger money? Seems like abuse otherwise.
These kinds of fires happen in Australia in the forests occasionally, but the houses are generally more spread out, so fewer are lost. It is always a risk building in a dry forest though.
Apparently unlike other areas, this wasn't as close to the "fire zone" as you would think, but with urban creep, it was bound to happen at some point. I think they get paid yes and they might even get time off their sentence if they are non-violent offenders or something. I don't know all the details.
They are considered wildfires not forest fires for their rapid acceleration to burn anything in their path, it not self containing to a forest, and this Palisades fire, from a report I'd seen earlier by the people who called 911 to report, started in someone's backyard, yet undetermined why but didn't from what they were saying, come down from the mountains.