Kim Kardashian’s pushing for inmate firefighters to get paid more as they tackle LA’s raging wildfires.
The 44-year-old star jumped on Instagram Stories Saturday night, dropping love for local officials and first responders battling the massive fires that’ve been tearing through LA since Jan. 7.
“I’ve been watching my city burn all week. I’ve talked to so many firefighters who’re pulling all-nighters, giving everything they’ve got to protect our community,” the entrepreneur shared. “Big thanks to @calfire LA County Fire and Los Angeles City Fire for putting your lives on the line to save others.”
CBS News reports that these fires have claimed 16 lives and wiped out over 12,000 buildings, forcing more than 150,000 LA County residents to flee their homes.
The firefighting force includes teams from across California, other states, Canada, Mexico, and notably, California prison inmates.
A California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson told Complex that as of Thursday, 783 Fire Camp firefighters were “pulling round-the-clock shifts.”
“LA’s got hundreds of inmate firefighters risking it all for us across 5 different fires,” Kim wrote. “They’re out there on the Palisades and Eaton fires in Pasadena, working non-stop. They’re barely getting paid, putting their lives on the line, some haven’t made it, all to show us they’ve changed and are now saving lives. These people are heroes to me.”
She added, “These firefighters behind bars are making $1/hour to face death, and that rate hasn’t budged since ’84. No adjustment for inflation. No raise even as fires got deadlier and we lost people.”
While no firefighters have died in these LA fires, an ACLU study from 2022 showed that four inmate firefighters lost their lives and more than 1,000 got hurt on the job over just four years.
The TV star mentioned a deal to bump their pay to $5 hourly that “fell through at the last second.” She then put the ball in California Governor Gavin Newsom’s court.
“I’m calling on @cagovernor to do something no Governor’s done in 40 years – give these inmate firefighters pay that shows respect for humans who risk death to protect our lives and homes,” Kim added.
Kim then shouted out ex-inmate firefighters from Cal Fire’s Ventura Training Center saying, “These are all FORMERLY locked up firefighters who’ve made it home and still want to serve our community on the front lines.
“Thanks to @antirecidivismcoalition’s bills, these guys can now get time off their sentences, clean their records of felonies through their fire service. When they’re released, they can land six-figure fire department gigs,” she explained.
Chris Brown hit up Instagram Stories last week with a similar message, posting “LA…You better throw these firefighters and first responders a parade or ceremony after this. And those inmates out there putting their lives on the line? They need their time cut down. Just throwing that out there.”
Meek Mill backed Brown’s take on X with a quick “Most definitely!”
