As you may or may not know, some of northern California is currently on fire and the air is thick with smoke. Today, at the supermarket, my attorney told me that "they" had begun picking up able bodied men over age 18 off the street to fight fires. He said that one of his clients had been "drafted" in such a manner that afternoon.

They used to do this years ago during fires, but I thought the practice had been discontinued because of liability problems. Just mentioning it because I wonder - if they can do it under an emergency situation for a fire, it is conceivable that officials could draft people in other emergencies caused by y2k.

If you need my attorney's name and the young draftees name, I will be glad to supply it on request.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), August 26, 1999

Answers

Marsh:

He said that one of his clients had been "drafted"...

Do you mean drafted as in drafted, or do you mean that the officials are asking for volunteers? Very scary if it is the latter.

And by the way, They can do whatever They damn well please.

-- Semper Paratus (gov@gonna.gitcha), August 26, 1999.

That is, scary if it is the former. You know what I meant.

-- Semper Paratus (gov@gonna.gitcha), August 26, 1999.

Most likely "they" are CDF or USFS and "drafting" means "recruiting" them, I strongly suspect they will rush them through the mandatory 40 hour wildland firefighting training (actually pretty comprehensive) and put them to work in a well supervised situation, usually "mopping up" after the worst of the fire is contained, washing/replenishing supplies/hoses, etc. on equipment. Believe me, they are not likely to put these newbies in a "hotshot" situation.

I have spent 7+ years around fire professionals with those agencies and they are not likely to act irresponsibly. They also are not going to "draft" by force, most likely the young men/women recruited will jump at the opportunity - good pay and benefits exciting jobs that are really hard to get under normal circumstances.

-- Kristi (securxsys@cs.com), August 26, 1999.

They are using prisoners, too, according to the TV news tonight. Not the first time, if I recall. So many fires all at once, and pretty soon you run out of "volunteers". I heard there were 1500 men tonight just on the Butte County fires; not counting Shasta, Tehama, and Tuolomne county fires. Yikes.

Anybody have a better link than what is available down here in Sacto?

Around here, if you want a place in the country, better put in a pool and get rid of the shake roof.

-- Margaret (janssm@aol.com), August 26, 1999.

I know that they routinely use prisoners from minimum security camps to fight fires.

My understanding is that the case today was "drafting" in the sense of non-volunteer. I could be wrong - I am sometimes.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), August 26, 1999.

Margaret,

Hope you don't mind my adding "men and WOMEN" to your statement as I have been lucky enough to accumulate gnarly fire boogers, blistered feet and REALLY grimy ears and eylids a few times myself. Not anymore, am just a happy mom at home but those were the days! By the way, as I understand it the prisoners volunteer for the duty - many choose it because it gets them out, earns them "brownie points", etc.

-- Kristi (securxsys@cs.com), August 26, 1999.

Maybe they'll make a movie about this...they could call it Backdrafted. :)

-- a (a@a.a), August 26, 1999.

Well, no prisoners here in my part of Butte County, but the fire across the way on the North side of the Middle Fork of the Feather River looks way awesome, and I hope the southerly winds hold all night, and the dry lightening storm anticipated does not arrive.

The Loafer Creek/Union Bar fire lights up the sky.

Air qual - terrible for the last 3 days. A whole new twist to Orange Sunshine!

-- Mitchell Barnes (spanda@inreach.com), August 27, 1999.

Somebody told me that he saw the fire dept. in northern Kalifornian shanghai guys right off interstate hwy to fight some forest fire. I didn't believe the guy; thought his story was some kind of urban legend. Scary shit that they really enslave people like this.

-- CS Man (csm@smoke.com), August 27, 1999.

Yeah, shaghai'ed with an offer of decent pay (talk about overtime!!!), great bennies, etc. Sheesh...... I guess they will have to kill them after working them - heck I guess they will just let them burn up on the fire line - OOOOOOHHHHHHH that sounds like a very good plan to keep them from telling their slavery story!!!!!!!! Come on folks, get real - but I guess if you get off on this kind of crap then ENJOY the thrill!!!!!

-- Kristi (securx@cs.com), August 27, 1999.

Marsh,

You state in your post that you will supply your attorney's name and the name of the "draftee" if requested. Would you please do so? I am feeling frustrated at how this thread is hyping what might be just a kid being offered a job. If you wish to keep the info off the forum just email me. Sorry to sound so grumpy above, I have been around fire officials, crews, etc. for many years and truly drafting workers would be the same as kidnapping and I have never seen it happen. If this kid was NOT forced to work then it would be nice to halt this paranoid, "Kalifornia", "urban legend". Thanks for your assistance. I truly enjoy your posts, finding a lot of great information - when I first read your post I chuckled but then I realized that this was implying that folks are being kidnapped/forced into slavery and this needs to be cleared up. Ok, ok, I will shush now. Waiting for your answer....

:)

-- Kristi (securxsys@cs.com), August 27, 1999.