SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California inmate firefighter left a half-block of destruction when police say he stole a firetruck in an apparent Independence Day escape bid and later tried to carjack a second vehicle.

Officials said Monday that the 31-year-old inmate from Orange County was part of an inmate crew fighting a vegetation fire caused by illegal fireworks late Sunday in the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Shingle Springs east of Sacramento.

They say the inmate drove a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection all-wheel-drive wildland firefighting engine through a fence where he rammed a parked vehicle, a tree and another fence before becoming stuck in a ditch.