The morning after a brush fire off Geiger Boulevard burned a few acres near the highway, the men of Heights 43 got to work. Wearing heavy black boots and green pants, they took to the still-smoking black earth, digging to find pockets of heat and snuff them out.
The 10-man crew wears red shirts – the only piece of their uniform that sets them apart from other wildland firefighters. They’re one of four inmate fire crews from Airway Heights Corrections Center, trained through a partnership with the Department of Natural Resources.
With fires burning all over Eastern Washington, Heights 43 is in high demand. David Danilson supervises the crew and said they’ve been called to 40 fires this summer: everything from 2-acre brush fires to the massive Carpenter Road Fire in Stevens County.
In late June, they were sent to save homes around the Sunnyvale fire, which broke out in Suncrest Park near Nine Mile Falls.
Paul Felch remembered standing on a balcony of a nearby home, just feet away from fire.
“You could reach out and touch it. The flames were right there,” he said.
Felch and his crewmates have been putting in upward of 16 hours a day digging fire lines and helping to save homes.
“I would put any DOC crew against any crew I’ve worked with. They’re hard chargers,” said Danilson, who’s worked in forestry and firefighting since 1988.
Fighting fires is grueling work, but inmates say being outside and doing a regular job helps them readjust to life on the outside before they’re released.