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| Smoke causes evacuation of jail's temporary housing while source located, building vented |
| By Keokuk Gate City Daily |
| Published: 06/14/2004 |
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A portion of the Lee County (Iowa) Correctional Center had to be evacuated early last Friday morning when a correctional officer noticed smoke in the hallway of the outside temporary housing, said Lee County Chief Deputy H.D. (Buck) Jones. There were no injuries from the fire and no incidents occurred while prisoners were moved from the area, Jones said. "We evacuated 22 inmates into the main jail indoor recreation hall," Jones said. "We put people on the floor of the day rooms of each cell block for the rest of the night. They went back to their cells Friday afternoon." Jones was called at 1:30 a.m. and when he arrived at the jail soon after, the Montrose and Fort Madison fire departments already were on the scene. A filter inside the heating/cooling unit was smoldering, sending smoke into the cells at the temporary unit. The jail had passed a state inspection conducted by State Jail Inspector Mike Richardson within the last several months, Jones said. The state fire marshal's office investigated the fire last Friday morning and questioned inmates, Jones said. The fire departments set up exhaust fans and blew the smoke out of the facility. After it was secured, inmates cleaned the housing. Jones said the process went well, from evacuation procedures, finding the cause of the smoke and abating the problem, relocation of inmates, clean up to getting back into normal services. One extra correctional officer was called in for the sake of safety. |
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