Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California's Wildfires
Jul 2021 · MCD
5.0star
1 reviewreport
Ebook
320
Pages
family_home
Eligible
info
reportRatings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More
About this ebook
A groundbreaking investigation into the women fighting California's catastrophic wildfires while imprisoned.
"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."
As California's fire season grows hotter, longer, and more extreme each year, roughly 30 percent of the wildland firefighters battling the blazes are inmates earning just a dollar an hour. Among them are approximately 200 women serving on all-female crews.
In Breathing Fire, Jaime Lowe expands on her revelatory reporting for The New York Times Magazine. Through years of interviews with dozens of women in the fire camp program, along with captains, correctional officers, family members, and camp commanders, Lowe offers a rare and illuminating look at the fire camps' actual operations.
This intimate portrayal of the women putting their lives on the line while imprisoned weaves together California's underlying catastrophes of climate change, economic disparity, and historical injustice. Drawing on deeply personal histories, relationships, desires, and frustrations, as well as the emotional and physical intensity of firefighting, Breathing Fire is a groundbreaking investigation of the prison system and the role of female inmate firefighters in a state facing an unprecedented crisis.
"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."
As California's fire season grows hotter, longer, and more extreme each year, roughly 30 percent of the wildland firefighters battling the blazes are inmates earning just a dollar an hour. Among them are approximately 200 women serving on all-female crews.
In Breathing Fire, Jaime Lowe expands on her revelatory reporting for The New York Times Magazine. Through years of interviews with dozens of women in the fire camp program, along with captains, correctional officers, family members, and camp commanders, Lowe offers a rare and illuminating look at the fire camps' actual operations.
This intimate portrayal of the women putting their lives on the line while imprisoned weaves together California's underlying catastrophes of climate change, economic disparity, and historical injustice. Drawing on deeply personal histories, relationships, desires, and frustrations, as well as the emotional and physical intensity of firefighting, Breathing Fire is a groundbreaking investigation of the prison system and the role of female inmate firefighters in a state facing an unprecedented crisis.
Ratings and reviews
5.0
1 review
About the author
Jaime Lowe is the author of Mental, a memoir about lithium and bipolar disorder, and Digging for Dirt: The Life and Death of ODB, a biography of Ol' Dirty Bastard, a founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times magazine and other national and international publications. Lowe has contributed to This American Life and Radiolab, and has been featured on NPR and WNYC numerous times.
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
