Santa Rosa residents thank the prison inmates who saved their home

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (KTVU) - Grateful residents hugging brave prison inmates on a Wednesday morning in Santa Rosa – it’s quite the image.

A team of state prison inmates is to thank for the still-standing neighborhood below Fountaingrove. The crew cloaked in orange are inmate-firefighters with the Washington Ridge Conservation Camp – one of 43 fire camps in California. They were able return to the neighborhood they saved a week ago and receive well-deserved praise.

The troop from the camp in Nevada City stood there, shoulder-to-shoulder, as residents thanked them individually. “It reminded me of what happens after a soccer game,” said resident Janet Condron, per The Press Democrat.

Condron was formerly mayor of Santa Rosa and she firmly believes her house, and the rest of the neighborhood, would’ve been demolished if it wasn’t for the response from Washington Ridge bunch.