Fire Escape

Snap Judgment

Snap Judgment and PRX

Snap, Glynn, Storytelling, Wnyc, Society & Culture/personal Journals, Performing Arts, Washington, Society & Culture/documentary, Arts/performing Arts, Music, Arts

4.8 • 11.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2024

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We are thrilled to share our new show Fire Escape, in partnership with Wondery! This 10 episode series, hosted by Anna Sussman, explores one woman’s journey as an incarcerated firefighter as she fights fire from behind bars -- defying a system intent on burying her under the weight of her worst moment.

This episode contains strong language and mentions a car crash and its aftermath. Please take care while listening.

Episode 1: The Crash

How did Amika Mota go from a midwife and mother of three to a prisoner inside one of the largest women's prisons on Earth?

Handcuffed to a hospital bed, awaiting trial, Amika tries to come to grips with the tragic crash that cost one man his life and took her away from her children. Inside the Chowchilla prison walls, she faces the "green cops" and the threat of solitary confinement. Outside the walls sits Firehouse Five, the home of the legendary crew of incarcerated firefighters called the Fire Girls.

Thank you, Amika Mota, for your help and generosity in sharing your story with us!!!

Fire Escape is a production of Snap Studios at KQED and Wondery. This series was created, written, and produced by Anna Sussman.

For Snap Studios, our senior story editors are Mark Ristich and Nancy López. Marisa Dodge is our Director of Production. Original music by Renzo Gorrio, Dirk Schwarzhoff, and Doug Stuart. Doug Stuart also created our original theme song. Sound design and engineering by Miles Lassi. Special thanks to Pat Mesiti-Miller and the SF Fire Department.

For Wondery, our senior story editor is Phyllis Fletcher. Our development producer is Eliza Mills. Clare Chambers, Lauren Dee and Mandy Gorenstein are our senior producers. Sarah Mathis is our managing producer. Our executive producers for Snap Studios are Glynn Washington and Mark Ristich. Executive producers for Wondery are Marshall Lewy, Morgan Jones, George Lavender and Jen Sargent.

Binge all episodes of Fire Escape early and ad-free right now by signing up for Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Amazon Music with your Prime Membership. Start your free trial: www.wondery.com/links/fire-escape now.

Season 15 - Episode 50

Transcript

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0:00.0	Snap
0:03.3	Studios
0:04.2	Snap Nation.
0:13.0	Snap Nation, I am so humbled and thrilled, because what you are about to hear is a project years in the making.
0:24.0	Snap Studios' brand new series Fire Escape explores the story of one woman, Amicamoda,
0:30.2	and the aftermath of her biggest mistake.
0:34.7	Perhaps the biggest mistake it's possible to make. And we also follow her journey to seize back her own humanity in her own eyes and through the eyes of the people she cares about.
0:46.3	Made in partnership with Wondery, Snap producer Anna Sussman, leads us through this new 10-part series into the world of incarcerated female firefighters.
0:58.0	And our real-life story includes mentions of a car crash and the aftermath.
1:05.0	This is Fire Escape, Episode 1, The Crash.
1:32.7	Okay, let's start with, tell me everything you remember about your first call.
1:49.3	It was fall during the really foggy, foggy season, and so the fog was really, really and so um you know in the fire engine on the way to the call and we could hardly see the fog was so thick and we had heard that um that there was a
1:57.2	cotton truck involved it was like a four-lane highway and it was a cotton truck involved. It was like a four-lane highway, and it was a cotton truck
2:03.7	that had been rear-ended by somebody else and kind of spun out, and the cotton bales fell off
2:10.6	onto the freeway.
2:12.3	911. What's your emergency?
2:14.5	The call came in to Madeira County Station 5. It sits in the flatlands of California's
2:19.5	Central Valley, lined with rows and rows of aging almond trees. The firefighters at Station 5
2:25.6	were the closest to the scene. You know, the routine is it comes in over, the call comes in over dispatch, and you get suited and booted real quick, so you get your full turnout gear on.
2:40.5	It's your real heavy gear, and then we all jump in the engine.
2:46.0	And I was nervous.
2:47.2	It was my first, you know, car accident.
	...

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