California employs prisoners to fight wildfires as death toll rises to 24

More than 900 prisoners have been pulled out to help firefighters contain the fast-moving wildfires in Southern California.

The conflagration, which began on January 7, has reportedly killed 24 persons with 12,300 buildings and about 163 square kilometres of land destroyed so far.

There have been several major fires in the state, but Eaton Fire and Palisades Fire are said to be the most severe, with 16 and 8 fatalities linked to them respectively.

As the inferno raged, Californian authorities turned to inmates serving sentences of up to eight years, for assistance.

These prisoners are being paid a maximum of $10 a day, with an additional $1 per hour for emergency firefighting efforts.

The prisoners were said to have undergone several days of training and are working voluntarily on removing flammable material and creating firebreaks in vegetation to stop the spread of the fire.

Only inmates who are not serving time for crimes such as rape or arson are deployed as helpers, as each day spent working as a rescue worker shortens the prison sentence by two days.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) warned that more winds would increase fire activity and urged people to take precaution to ensure all campfires were extinguished.

It added that Southern California is expected to face critical weather through Wednesday.

“Life-threatening winds and dangerously low humidity are forecast for much of Southern California — from Ventura to San Diego — creating a significant risk of rapid fire spread,” the department wrote on X.

Gavin Newsom, California governor, said the wildfire is the worst natural disaster in US history in terms of the “scale and scope” as well as cost implications.

Newsom added that he has signed an executive order to temporarily suspend environmental regulations for destroyed homes and businesses.

“Just issued an Executive Order that will allow victims of the SoCal fires to not get caught up in bureaucratic red tape and quickly rebuild their homes,” he wrote on X.

According to a preliminary estimate by AccuWeather, a private US weather service, the fires have caused more than $135 billion in damages, with death toll likely to rise since it may take days before emergency services access all impacted areas.