Inmate firefighter back in custody after reported walkaway from Calif. fire line
An Idaho inmate who was helping battle a California wildfire is back in custody after walking away from his inmate fire crew near Sonoma, Calif., the Idaho Department of Correction reports. Angelo Manuel Diaz, 37, was reported missing around 11:30 Friday night; a Napa County Sheriff’s deputy found Diaz about three hours later. Diaz claimed he got lost while headed to a restroom.
He was part of a 19-member crew from the minimum-security South Idaho Correctional Institution that was dispatched Oct. 14 to fight the California fires; the crew was based at a fire camp in Santa Rosa. Diaz is serving three to seven years in prison on a January 2017 conviction for possession of a controlled substance.