As the Spokane area fires burned through thousands of acres in the wildland interface, destroying hundreds of homes and structures, a local one-of-a-kind crew of partially incarcerated firefighters responded attempting to help their community.
Washington state's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Arcadia 20 recruits the best crew members from various prisons in partnership with Department of Corrections camp crews program.
For their dedication and hard work to fighting fires while fully incarcerated, when they join the elite group they are paid state wildland firefighter wages, receive benefits, and become members of the union.
Superintendent Ben Hood, 37, who designed the program in 2022, lives in Spokane County, his family under evacuation warning at one point last weekend."You know, being in wildland fire for the past 15 years, I've seen this happen to other communities, unfortunately time and time again up and down the west coast," said Hood, collecting his memory of when the historic fire jumped the Spokane River and entered city limits.
"Having friends and family that live there, and having them reach out and ask 'how are things going out there? I evacuated, is my house okay?' It definitely, you have that kind of sense of urgency where you want to do more, but we know we need to stick to our training and our tactics."
It was an important moment for the team to show how much they cared for their own community explained partially incarcerated crew member Jason De La Cruz, 43, who has served on the team for two fire seasons.
"Since day one, boots, boots on the ground. We were gunning, running and gunning. And it's been an uphill battle," De La Cruz said of his experience in the past week. "You know, not much sleeping, but I do believe that the work we're doing, it's it's definitely, doing really, some really good, damage to to contain this fire or at least control it or slow it down just a little bit."
Before joining Arcadia 20 he served 17 years in a Washington state prison on burglary and weapons charges, but realized there was "much more to life" and started searching for a new beginning in DNR's program.
"It's building us. It's crazy to say, but they're building men. You know, we spent many years in prison and just doing, being kids. This program is giving me the opportunity to grow the hell up." he said.
It's still considered relatively early in the wildfire season for the Pacific Northwest according to state meteorologists, the Arcadia 20 transitional hand crew will continue to support wildfire supression wherever they're needed.
