[californiadisasters] Mother Mourns Inmate Firefighter Who Died Fighting Blaze

Shawna Lynn Jones, who died from a boulder hitting her head late February, would have been released this week

By Gordon Tokumatsu and Paolo Uggetti

More than a month after the death of her daughter who died while fighting a fire in Malibu, Diana Baez can't stop thinking about the 22 year old.

"She was so happy," Diana Baez said. "So happy."

Her daughter, Shawna Lynn Jones, was killed by a falling boulder in a Malibu blaze on Feb. 25. She was an inmate firefighter, opting to fight the flames to shave off time on her jail sentence, her mother said in the first interview with NBC4 since Jones died.

She was relishing the fact that she had only six more weeks until she was released from jail for drug possession. But in a twist of fate, she was killed before she would get out.

Southern California Wildfires

Jones died after a boulder rolled down a hill and struck her in the head during in the firefight near Mulholland and Pacific Coast highways.

Jones was a part of the inmate firefighter system that began in 1943.

Her mother said she had fallen in love with the work.

Today, Baez carries the cards that so many firefighters and people gave her after Jones' death.

She finds notes and poems that her daughter had written, and though it reminds her that she is gone, it also reminds her of the bond they had together.

"She died doing something that she really loved," Baez said of Jones, who was only the third female inmate to die while working as a firefighter.

Source: www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Mother-Inmate-Firefighter-Jail-Death-Malibu-Fire-Boulder-Mourns-Daughter-374341551.html

--

Check out http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters/
Read my blog at http://eclecticarcania.blogspot.com/
My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/derkimster
Linkedin profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kim-noyes/9/3a1/2b8
Follow me on Twitter @CalDisasters

Virus-free. www.avast.com

__._,_.___

---

Posted by: Kim Noyes <kimnoyes@gmail.com>

---

Be sure to check out our Links Section at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters/links
Please join our Discussion Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters_discussion/ for topical but extended discussions started here or for less topical but nonetheless relevant messages.

Visit Your Group

• Privacy • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use