Around 200 prison inmates have been called in to help tackle the deadly California wildfires.
The inmates are assisting local firefighters with tackling the Camp Fire blaze, earning $2 a day and $1 an hour when fighting an active fire.
The Camp Fire has killed at least 48 people and destroyed over 7,700 homes with 1,000 evacuees currently residing in shelters. While another wildfire in Malibu has killed two people.
The inmate volunteers do physical work such as cutting bushes and trees to reduce fire danger.
Vicky Waters, representative of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told CNBC: “Each volunteer inmate is evaluated individually to ensure that all those selected for the camp program are willing to be team members with nonviolent behaviour, even if their original conviction was for a violent crime.
Inmates are also offered a sentence reduction for their hard work.
Ms Waters said: “The fire camp program helps inmates build skills in firefighting, including positively working in a team environment. It can be an important part of an inmate’s rehabilitation while they are serving their sentences with CDCR”
The Camp Fire is just 30 percent contained.
The exact number of people missing remains unclear but many friends and relatives of those living in the fire zone said they had not heard from loved ones.
Efforts were under way to bring in mobile morgues, body-finding dogs and a rapid DNA analysis system for identifying victims.
There are also an additional 150 search and rescue personnel on top of 13 teams already looking for remains – a grim indication that the death toll is likely to rise.
At the other end of the state, firefighters made progress against a massive blaze that has killed two people in star-studded Malibu and destroyed well over 400 structures in Southern California.
The cause of the fires remained under investigation, but they broke out around the time and place two utilities reported equipment trouble.
