There are 14,000 firefighters our there right now helping protecting us. 3,000 of them are prison inmates who began working the front lines yesterday.

A spokesman for the corrections department says it's close to the most the state has ever used.

The inmates go through a four-week training program. They must be physically fit, have no history of violent crime and have between four months to three years remaining on their sentences.

They're paid $1 an hour. The program started in the 1940s and also makes inmates available for other natural disasters such as earthquakes and flooding. [Associated Press via CBS2]

Mexico has also begun sending bomberos to assist with the fires according to an LA Times story today that followed a team of about 40 is assigned to the Harris fire, near the border in San Diego County.

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP