Breathing Fire

Each year, thousands of people across California work to contain its wildfires. About three in ten of the ground crews are incarcerated people who earn one dollar an hour, and roughly 200 of these workers are women on all-female teams. Jaime Lowe spent years getting to know dozens of the women who have taken part in the state's fire camp program.

Lowe also talked with crew captains, relatives and friends of the women, correctional officers, and camp commanders. Their accounts show how the fire camps really function, from daily routines to the chain of authority behind them.

The book places this program within the larger crises facing the state: a warming climate, deep economic inequality, and long-standing historical injustice. It also conveys how physically and emotionally punishing the work of firefighting can be.