Guest Commentary written by

Jose Angel Amezcua

Jose Angel Amezcua is a formerly  incarcerated firefighter from Salinas

On a cold January day at our fire camp in Northern California, I learned my crew was being sent south. On the bus, I kept wondering why they would need our help with a fire in the winter. 

As we got closer, I saw towering black smoke rising miles into the sky and spreading across the horizon. 

For the next three weeks, I was one of hundreds of incarcerated firefighters who helped battle and contain the deadly LA fires. During the blazes, I moved through ash-covered Eaton Canyon, creating fire breaks, hauling sandbags to prevent mudslides and clearing fallen trees and debris in Altadena. 

Before then, I had only fought wildland fires. I had never seen such devastation in a city. In neighborhoods I saw homes and structures reduced to rubble and people trying to salvage whatever they could. It was heartbreaking to witness the destruction.

But it was also a stark reminder that I was right where I was supposed to be — helping to save the communities I had once harmed.

Early in my incarceration I knew I had to better myself, so I attended as many classes and groups as I could. Then the opportunity came to join a fire camp, which would allow me to leave the prison and spend time outside. I joined knowing I could earn time off my sentence — but what I gained was so much more.

I joined the Youth Offender Fire Camp Program at Growlersburg, a pilot program launched in 2023 that allowed young people under 26 to train as wildland firefighters, instead of being held in a high-security prison. At Growlersburg, I noticed a big difference from my time in prison: we had better food, better living arrangements and we got to be outside in the woods. 

The Cal Fire Captains treated us like equals. I trained as a handcrew firefighter, creating firelines to contain wildfires and clearing vegetation with hand tools. Then I started to fight fires.

An individual wearing a red hoodie and cap uses a broom to clean a concrete walkway near a house surrounded by trees. A burned-out car is visible on the left side of the image, and debris from a fire is scattered around the property under a clear blue sky.
David Slater, right, clears the driveway from his home, spared from the Eaton Fire in Altadena, on Jan. 12, 2025. Photo by Ethan Swope, AP Photo

Nothing can mentally prepare you for being on a fire line. You feel the adrenaline, and it pushes you to your limits. Fighting a fire means working 24-hour shifts, sometimes climbing mountains in the dark, using heavy tools to create a fire line. 

I didn’t realize our impact until, in a stereotypical moment, we helped a woman find her cat during a wildfire. That showed me the difference our work made in helping someone during their darkest moments.

Over time, I became a sawyer, someone who cuts down trees with a chainsaw. I began to enjoy the work and imagined a different future as I watched my crew members get released and become firefighters with Cal Fire’s support.

During the LA fires, the Rose Bowl became our base camp, where we were greeted with gratitude from elected officials, celebrities and community members. For the first time, we realized that people wanted to hear our stories, that the world saw us as more than our past mistakes. 

It was an incredible feeling to know our hard work mattered and that others believed we were deserving of a second chance.

At firecamp, the rehabilitation and reentry preparation classes I took with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition helped me get ready to come home and prepare for my next journey.  Fire camp reduced my 10-year sentence to 5½ years, and I came home from prison a few months ago.

Since then I’ve been cherishing every moment with my family and my wife. Life on the outside is harder than I expected, but fire camp prepared me for the mental challenges of rebuilding my life. It taught me to push forward, no matter what.

I had never held a job before. I came to prison at a young age. I never believed in my future. Now, becoming a firefighter is my calling. I’m working to expunge my record so I can keep saving lives and stopping fires from spreading.

When people think of incarcerated people, they often see us as a danger, with our past mistakes magnified. Amid the smoke, ash, and destruction of the LA fires, people saw us as heroes, recognizing the good we could achieve when given a second chance. 

It’s been one year since the fires. California has raised wages for incarcerated firefighters and made the Growlersburg Fire Camp program permanent. During the LA fires, the attention to our stories showed that people want to see second chances given not just to firefighters, but to all incarcerated people working to turn their lives around.