Prison reduction beckons
Los Angeles: Hundreds of inmates help firefighters
In the fight against the flaming inferno in the Los Angeles area, the firefighters who are on permanent duty are not only receiving support from comrades from other states and abroad, but also from hundreds of prisoners.
Kronen Zeitung als bevorzugte Google-Quelle hinzufügen Around 900 prisoners, who have completed several days of training, have been on duty since Friday. Their tasks include creating firebreaks and removing burning material such as fallen trees. They are paid the equivalent of a maximum of 9.99 euros a day for their work. An allowance of just under one euro per hour is paid for emergency work.
Only certain prisoners are allowed to help
Each day spent working as a rescue worker also shortens the prison sentence by two days. Only prisoners who are serving a prison sentence of a maximum of eight years and are not serving time for crimes such as rape or arson are allowed to work as helpers.
It will certainly be many days before the prison inmates' assistance assignment can be completed. This is because the devastating forest fires in and around Los Angeles have spread again. On Saturday, the flames spread from the Pacific Palisades district further east and north, including towards the densely populated San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, the death toll has risen to at least 16.
Images from the Mandeville Canyon area northeast of Pacific Palisades showed a wall of flames traveling up a hill and threatening several homes. After the winds weakened in recent days, the National Weather Service warned of weather conditions that could encourage more fires or cause existing fires to spread.
Authority warns of polluted air
The fires are also noticeably worsening the air quality in the Los Angeles area. The Los Angeles County Health Department has advised residents to leave their homes as little as possible. Anyone who has to work outdoors should use N95 respirators - which corresponds to the FFP2 standard in Europe. The district had already declared a public health emergency on Friday due to the increased air pollution caused by the fires.
Meanwhile, there was further discussion about responsibility for the extent of the fires. President-elect Donald Trump, a Republican, accused the authorities in Democrat-ruled California of "incompetence" in dealing with the fires. The authorities were simply unable to put out the fires, he wrote in his online service Truth Social. "What's wrong with them?" Trump asked.
Arrest outside the home of Kamala Harris
The under-fire mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, assured on Saturday that all authorities were pulling together to fight the fire. The Los Angeles fire chief had previously criticized inadequate funding for the fire department.
To prevent looting, a night-time curfew remained in place in Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Two people were arrested near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris in Brentwood for violating the curfew. According to media reports, the police had previously received reports of break-ins in the area.
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