Incarcerated Wildland Firefighters Need to be Prioritized in Research

Abstract

Wildfires in the United States (US) require tens of thousands of personnel a day to manage and suppress. Some US states use incarcerated wildland firefighters (IWFF) to perform wildland firefighting duties, but risks to IWFFs have not been investigated. We provide an overview of the potential hazards that wildland firefighting poses to IWFFs while considering inherent socio-environmental injustices that may compound adverse effects of hazardous exposures. Chronic health conditions are more common in the US prison population than the general US population. IWFFs do work involving exposure to hazards that can include smoke, fire, and soil. More research on IWFFs is necessary to best inform allocation of resources and reduce environmental injustice.