The orange-suited, tool-wielding inmate fire crew chewed through manzanita and redshank on a Bautista Canyon hillside like a herd of hungry goats.

As two men from the Bautista Conservation Camp, southeast of Hemet, used chain saws to cut a fire break, a third followed with a Pulaski — a hybrid ax and hoe — to pull debris and roots off the path the crew created. Others followed with a McCloud, a six-spike rake that removes heavier brush. Still others followed with a leaf rake to clear the break.

“Who’s going to beat Bautista in Bautista?” a Cal Fire captain shouted.

“Nobody,” the crew responded.

The spirited exercise Thursday, April 20 — in which competing crews from three California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation fire camps were scored on how fast they could cut a fire break, hike 2 miles and deploy fire shelters — was the final test in a tune-up for a Southern California fire season that is expected to be fueled by tall grasses that are thriving after record rains.

“The more grass we have, the more brush we have, the more we’re going to rely on all of our resources including (inmate) fire crews to contain and control fires,” said Silvio Lanzas, a division chief for Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department.

Once the grass dries out, which Lanzas said is already happening, there will be an increase in grass fires, according to a report by the National Interagency Fire Center.

A valuable resource

Inmates from 43 camps throughout the state, including 13 that serve Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange counties, will again be at the forefront of the firefighting effort, working alongside professional firefighters as they cut fire breaks in hopes of stopping flames.

“The amount of line construction that they are able to put in in a very short amount of time is an excellent resource to the taxpayers and an excellent resource to the firefighting agencies,” Lanzas said.

For serving on a fire crew, inmates are paid $2 a day, plus $2 per hour when they are on the fire lines. The pay is better than for jobs they can get inside a prison, which fetches 35 to 90 cents per hour, Department of Corrections spokesman Bill Sessa said.

Inmates on the crews also respond to emergencies such as earthquakes, mudslides and floods. More than 200 went to the Lake Oroville dam scare to clear debris near the threatened emergency spillway.

At slower times, the inmates perform community service projects such as picking up trash.

“They’re the most needed and the resource that gets depleted most quickly,” said Mike Lopez, president of Cal Fire Local 2881, which represents state firefighters. “We could use double the crews we have now and they would be busy all summer long.”

Fewer inmates available

The trend, however, is toward fewer inmates available for hand crews, and not more.

Inmates can serve on fire crews even if they have convictions for violent offenses. Exceptions include arsonists, murderers, escapees and sex offenders. Inmates are eligible to work out of the minimum-security camps if they have a record of good behavior in prison.

When AB 109 — a program often called realignment — went into effect in October 2011 to comply with a court order to reduce the state prison population, many non-violent offenders were sent to county jails, instead of state prison, to serve their terms. That reduced the number of inmates available to the Department of Corrections for its fire crews.

The department’s budget allows for 4,300 inmate crew members, Sessa said. The most recent figures show 3,650 on crews, with 1,550 being screened for the voluntary service.

The result is that some crews that once had 15 to 17 inmates are now down to 12.

“If you have 12, the production rate goes down,” Lanzas said.

But if there are enough experienced crew members, that can make up for the shortfall, he added.

“The 12 seasoned are still probably going to outperform those 15 new ones because they haven’t learned some of the tricks of the trade and how to use their tools and save their energy,” Lanzas said.

The Department of Corrections has contracts with a number of counties, including those in Southern California, to supply inmates. And it receives help from the California Conservation Corps.

The Department of Corrections is trying to sell inmates on the fire program. Last summer, officials began showing a video touting the merits of the camps, where the atmosphere is more relaxed, the food is better and inmates get to work in the great outdoors, Sessa said.

“We did some good old-fashioned marketing,” Sessa said.

A positive pursuit

Two Bautista inmates said they hadn’t seen the video but had their own motivations for joining the program. They were allowed to speak with a reporter on the condition that their names not be published.

“I came to fire camp so I can do something positive,” said one inmate, who said he has been fighting fires for a year and eight months. “We push each other, we motivate each other to get the job done.”

The other inmate, in his second month with the Bautista crew, said he hoped he could change the path of his life.

“Everything I was doing in my life meant nothing. … I like being out in the open. It made me decide this is what I want to do when I get out,” he said.

Fire camps serving Southern California

Acton

Bautista (Hemet)

Fenner Canyon (Valyermo)

Francisquito (Santa Clarita)

Holton (Sylmar)

Julius Klein (Azusa)

Malibu

Norco

Oak Glen (Yucaipa)

Pilot Rock (Crestline)

Prado (Chino)

Rainbow (Fallbrook)

Prepare for fire season

Cal Fire officials encourage people to visit ReadyForWildfire.org for tips on how to prepare their families and property for the threat of wildfires. Cal Fire has launched an app, called Ready for Wildfire, for smartphones. The app, available in the Apple and Google Play stores, provides checklists to track progress in creating a 100-foot defensible space, assembling an emergency supply kit and creating a family communication and evacuation plan.