Fire near Yosemite explodes, officials mourn firefighter killed on front lines

A forest fire burning near Yosemite National Park exploded overnight to 4,000 acres, forcing the closure of Highway 140 into the park and prompting evacuations of nearby communities, officials said.

The fire was only 2 percent contained early Sunday, a day after a firefighter was killed battling the blaze. No structures have been lost.

The fire is burning in a wilderness area southwest of the park and has prompted evacuations in Briceburg, Cedar Lodge and Mariposa Pines north of Bear Clover. An evacuation advisory was also in effect Sunday for the Jerseydale area.

The fire is burning in rugged, steep terrain where droughtstricken trees are providing plenty of fuel, said Cal Fire spokesman Scott Mclean, whose agency is assisting the U.S. Forest Service in battling the blaze.

Braden Varney, a heavy equipment operator with Cal Fire, died at the scene as crews battled the fire early Saturday, Mclean said.

Varney, 36, of Mariposa had served in the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Madera-mariposamerced Unit for a decade. He left behind a wife and two young children, according to the agency. Mclean said Varney’s death is still under investigation.

– Appeal-democrat news services cided. Federal officials have said that using prisons to hold the detainees is a stopgap measure while officials find more holding space.

Officials with the Federal Bureau of Prisons say the facility had beds available because of a decline in the inmate population in recent years, and that it has managed the new population using existing staff, some of whom were reassigned from other facilities.

But workers and people who have been able to visit the detainees say the prison was seriously unprepared for its new role.

The prison, which workers have long complained was short-staffed, is now scrambling to care for hundreds of new detainees from around the world with language, medical and care needs that are very different from those of typical federal prisoners, workers say.

The situation has raised concerns among Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

In late June, Rep. Paul Cook, R-calif., wrote a letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Bureau of Prisons urging officials to increase staffing levels at Victorville to match the increase in population.

“Furthermore, I urge ICE to support and train (prison) staff so they are properly equipped to implement policies and procedures that may be unfamiliar to them when dealing with immigration detainees,” Cook wrote.

Rep. Mark Takano, Dcalif., who visited the facility July 2, said he saw numerous signs that the prison was struggling to meet detainees’ needs.

“Every detainee group that we met said they had not had a change in clothes since they arrived on June 8. Their bedding had not been switched. They were wearing the same underwear,” Takano said.

Thirteen of the detainees who spoke with Takano and his staff were fathers who had been separated from their children. The men said they had been unable to speak with their children since arriving at the facility.

Detainees of also not complained getting Union members protest outside FCC Victorville, where around 1,000 new ICE detainees have been transferred with no increase in staffing on June 15 in Victorville.

enough food and of being “locked up for long periods of time in their cells” and having very limited access to the outdoors, Takano said.

Prison officials showed Takano a recreation area, which he said was nicely equipped. But when he asked one group of detainees whether they were able to use that room, they told him they had been

there only once, he said.

“That’s an indicator to me that the prison was not ramped up to be able to accommodate this incursion of detainees. They were understaffed before the detainees arrived, and the arrival of 1,000 detainees I think has fully stressed the staff’s ability to be able to safely oversee their health and safety,” Takano said.