Incarcerated people among thousands of firefighters battling Oregon’s aggressive fire season

On a misty spring day in Oregon’s Tillamook State Forest, a group of incarcerated men wearing yellow collared shirts and hard hats gathered around an instructor warning them about the dangers of an over-pressurized firefighting hose.

If left for too long, he said, a hose could overheat and explode, leaving those nearby with third-degree burns.

Such were the risks that these men were willing to take to avoid sleeping in a prison cell.