Nearly a third of California’s firefighters are incarcerated. Jaime Lowe’s new book highlights their stories MORE Jaime Lowe is a journalist, and the author of “Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California's Wildfires.” Photo by Philip Montgomery. Nearly a third of the crews fighting wildfires in California are serving time in jails and prisons. That’s according to journalist and author Jaime Lowe, whose newest book “Breathing Fire” highlights the stories of several women who serve as firefighters as part of their sentences. They’re called “fire camps,” and they’re located all around California. They’re facilitated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), one of the biggest prison systems in the country.