My husband was a volunteer fireman for many years as well as an EMT. A friend of ours is a retired professional firefighter. (Difference is pay and size of community). They would freak over this if it were made into reality. Firefighting is for those who are willing and trained to lay their lives on the line; as are police. To use prisoners as slave firefighters sounds too much like the days of Imperial Rome when they had just such an institution. Basically saying that human lives are worth nothing to the powers that be.