Kin May Sue State Over Inmate’s Death : Firefighting: Father of man killed while battling blaze challenges program that allows prisoners to volunteer for dangerous duty.

The distraught father of an inmate killed last week while fighting a Riverside County blaze said Monday he does not understand why his son was at the scene in the first place and demanded efforts by the state “to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Victor Ferrera, 22, was one of two people killed in last week’s rash of Southern California fires. In addition, 15 of Ferrera’s fellow inmate-firefighters from the Bautista Conservation Camp in Hemet and a state fire supervisor were injured when a sudden change in winds trapped them briefly in a sea of fire about 20 miles from their Riverside camp.

State forestry and corrections officials said the Riverside mishap--responsible for more injuries than any of the other fires last week--is under investigation, with a full report expected this week. But they defended the state program that allows 3,600 low-risk inmates around California to volunteer for firefighting duty at up to $1 an hour.

“This program is one of the most effective we have,” said Christine May, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections in Sacramento. “The inmates are well-trained and well-supervised, and they do work that would normally cost local governments far more than the cost of the program.”

Ferrera was the second inmate to die fighting a fire since the program was instituted in 1946, state officials said. Another inmate died battling a blaze near Big Sur last year. Those who volunteer for the program must take two weeks of basic firefighting training, and they receive one day off their sentences for each day spent on the fire lines or engaged in other conservation work.

Jim Ferrera of Fullerton, the victim’s father, remains unconvinced. He said he’s skeptical that state officials provided adequate training and supervision. And he and an attorney, family friend James Brady of Los Angeles, said they are considering a wrongful-death action against the state.

“At this point, we don’t have much information,” Brady said. “There has to be a lot more investigation. But (Jim Ferrera) needs that piece of mind at least, to know what happened.”

Ferrera, who works on tankers in the Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors, asked: “Why did they send those guys up there, with little shovels and those big flames, and tell these kids to put out the fire?”

His son is to be buried today in Fullerton. Flags at state corrections conservation camps will be flown at half-staff, but the family declined an offer by the state for an escort to a memorial service at the Bautista camp, where Victor had been held since last year for a parole violation. He was scheduled to be released in four months.

According to state corrections officials, Victor was initially incarcerated in 1988 for assault with a deadly weapon after he took a car from its driver at knifepoint.

On the state’s offer, Ferrera said: “I don’t want that. It just didn’t set right with me.

“He was a good kid,” Ferrera added in a brief telephone interview. “My family’s pretty well shook up. We’re going through hell right now, and I don’t imagine we’ll ever get over it.”

State officials said the family will be eligible for financial compensation to cover funeral costs, but added that the state’s responsibility for the tragedy ends there.