Kim Kardashian is using her massive platform to bring attention to a relatively unknown and overlooked group of firefighters battling the devastating Los Angeles fires.
“I have spent the last week watching my city burning. And have seen and spoken to many firefighter who are up all night long using every ounce of their strength to save our community,” Kardashian, 44, said in a series of posts shared via Instagram Stories on Saturday, January 11.
“Thank you to @calfire la County Fire and Los Angeles City Fire for everything you are doing to save lives, homes property,” she added.
Kardashian then went on to praise the incarcerated firefighters battling the flames. (According to a recent report from The New York Times, at least 900 prisoners are currently fighting the historic fires in and around the greater Los Angeles area.)
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“On all 5 fires in Los Angeles, there are hundreds of incarcerated firefighters, risking their lives to save us,” Kardashian explained. “They are on the Palisades fire and Eaton fire and Pasadena fire working 24 hour shifts. They get paid almost nothing, risk their lives, some have died, to prove to the community that they have changed and are now first responders. I see them as heroes.”
According to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in California, incarcerated firefighters in the area are “working to cut fire lines and remove fuel to slow fire spread,” as reported by The New York Times. “Their presence provides much-needed manpower to depleted fire crews,” the outlet writes.
“The incarcerated firefighters have been paid $1/hour to risk their lives and this pay has been the same since 1984,” Kardashian continues in her Instagram Stories. “It has never been raised with inflation. It’s never been raised when fires got worse and many [firefighters] died. This year there was an agreement to raise the incarcerated firefighter pay to $5/hour, but it got shot down last minute.”
Kardashian, who is also known for her prison reform advocacy work, then urged California Governor Gavin Newsom to increase the pay incarcerated firefighters receive when battling wildfires.
“I am urging @cagovernor to do what no Governor has done in 4 decades, and raise the incarcerated firefighters pay to a rate that honors a human being risking their life to save our lives and homes,” she wrote.
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At least 16 people have lost their lives as a result of the five wildfires burning around L.A., according to local officials. According to NBC News, the fires have burned through at least 37,000 acres and destroyed more than 12,000 structures.
A number of Hollywood celebrities — from Milo Ventimiglia and Anthony Hopkins to Eugene Levy and Paris Hilton — have lost their homes.
In her Saturday post, Kardashian also thanked the “firefighters from the @calfire Ventura Training Center for saving my community when it started burning this week.”
“These are all FORMERLY incarcerated firefighters who have come home, and want to continue serving our communities as firefighters,” she continued. “Due to bills passed by @antirecidivismcoalition, these guys can now get their sentences reduced, expunging the felonies from their records for their fire service. And when they come home can get six figure jobs working for the fire departments.”
Check the LAFD website for local wildfire alerts and click here for resources on how to help those affected.
