I'm retired from a large federal agency that, among many other activities, manages/fights wildland fires. I have worked on fires with California inmate crews and have had them perform project work such as rock retaining walls, building campground sites, fences and trails. I was assigned to over 100 wildland fires in my career. I found the following to be shown/written in a manner that is not close to realism.
1. Cal Fire is not "hungry" for inmates. Getting assigned to a camp is competitive and time off a sentence is involved.
2. Crew members arrive at camp individually not as a whole crew of beginners as shown.
3. Inmates with a history of violent offensives are not eligible so the primary character in the show would not be on a camp crew. The main character is shown to have committed robbery with a gun on a citizen. He would not be eligible for a crew assignment as a result.
4. Get over it Hollywood, cars don't fully explode when they burn.
5. Inmates are shown committing all sorts of insubordination and getting away with it. The slightest infraction results in being sent back to prison and all the credits to the sentence being wiped out. On one fire I was on an inmate complained about his sack lunch and said he wouldn't work until he got a decent meal. This at 2 a.m. A Corrections van was sent and he was driven back to prison, right then and there.
6. This shows a crew go out on a large fire with virtually no training when the opposite is true.
7. Cal Fire is shown to evacuate part of a city and making those decisions. Wrong, the country sheriff makes those decisions and accomplishes getting people out.
8. A Cal Fire is shown with his shirt and pants on fire. They wear flame retardant Nomex on fires. A fellow firefighter is shown throwing dirt on the person's clothes. Training is to drop and roll to the point it's automatic.
9. The initial attack of a fire is shown in the incident command post just a few hours after the fire is started. They show a map posted of the fire that takes a huge printer (3-4 feet square) to print. The information shown and the quickness of its printing doesn't happen until 3 or more days on the fire.
10. Fire shelters are shown deployed in very close, intense burning conditions with a wealth of fuel. A fire shelter will fail to protect its occupant in these conditions.
11. The pistol shown shooting a "flare" to begin a burn is shot into a portion of the fire already fully involved.
12. Fire was put out in just a few hours, nothing of that size and intensity can be "put out" in that timeframe.
13. An inmate would not be assigned when his parents work for Cal Fire in the same operational unit. Conflict of interest prevents this.
14. Cal Fire does not overrule Corrections when it comes to inmate behavior. This episode shown the main character's parents throwing a Corrections officer out of a room.
15. The inmate crew is shown in a town parade just after the miraculous and unrealistic extinguishment of this fire. Inmates are not allowed to be at such events where the public is present.
16. Inmates are shown building line standing nearly shoulder to shoulder. At fires 8-10 spacing between people is reality. This is a safety issue.
I know this is a pilot, maybe the writers will rescue this series, but I doubt it.
1. Cal Fire is not "hungry" for inmates. Getting assigned to a camp is competitive and time off a sentence is involved.
2. Crew members arrive at camp individually not as a whole crew of beginners as shown.
3. Inmates with a history of violent offensives are not eligible so the primary character in the show would not be on a camp crew. The main character is shown to have committed robbery with a gun on a citizen. He would not be eligible for a crew assignment as a result.
4. Get over it Hollywood, cars don't fully explode when they burn.
5. Inmates are shown committing all sorts of insubordination and getting away with it. The slightest infraction results in being sent back to prison and all the credits to the sentence being wiped out. On one fire I was on an inmate complained about his sack lunch and said he wouldn't work until he got a decent meal. This at 2 a.m. A Corrections van was sent and he was driven back to prison, right then and there.
6. This shows a crew go out on a large fire with virtually no training when the opposite is true.
7. Cal Fire is shown to evacuate part of a city and making those decisions. Wrong, the country sheriff makes those decisions and accomplishes getting people out.
8. A Cal Fire is shown with his shirt and pants on fire. They wear flame retardant Nomex on fires. A fellow firefighter is shown throwing dirt on the person's clothes. Training is to drop and roll to the point it's automatic.
9. The initial attack of a fire is shown in the incident command post just a few hours after the fire is started. They show a map posted of the fire that takes a huge printer (3-4 feet square) to print. The information shown and the quickness of its printing doesn't happen until 3 or more days on the fire.
10. Fire shelters are shown deployed in very close, intense burning conditions with a wealth of fuel. A fire shelter will fail to protect its occupant in these conditions.
11. The pistol shown shooting a "flare" to begin a burn is shot into a portion of the fire already fully involved.
12. Fire was put out in just a few hours, nothing of that size and intensity can be "put out" in that timeframe.
13. An inmate would not be assigned when his parents work for Cal Fire in the same operational unit. Conflict of interest prevents this.
14. Cal Fire does not overrule Corrections when it comes to inmate behavior. This episode shown the main character's parents throwing a Corrections officer out of a room.
15. The inmate crew is shown in a town parade just after the miraculous and unrealistic extinguishment of this fire. Inmates are not allowed to be at such events where the public is present.
16. Inmates are shown building line standing nearly shoulder to shoulder. At fires 8-10 spacing between people is reality. This is a safety issue.
I know this is a pilot, maybe the writers will rescue this series, but I doubt it.