After a long summer battling wildfires that have burned millions of acres of Western forests, most firefighters are returning home. Not Dean Hyde. His homecoming won't come until 2004, his scheduled release from prison for a drug offense. They know how to fight fires. Zube, who volunteered to help feed the crew at the saloon, was taken aback by their politeness.
Most Western states have prison firefighting teams.
California has several thousand inmate firefighters. They fight fires throughout Wyoming and in South Dakota's Black Hills. Prisoners who opt for the camp forestry program and pass stringent training and fitness tests earn the chance to become Smokebusters. The team is supervised by the Wyoming Forestry Division and has been around since 1966, program manager Rob Akers said. But in his 20 years with the program, there has never been an escape.