Seems as though the folks in Pensacola can’t catch a break. First a storm dumps 20" of rain in a day and now a gas leak at the jail causes an explosion that injures 150 and so far has killed 2 they have confirmed with possibly more buried in the debris.
My best friend and training partner is an ER doc and director of one of the emergency rooms over there and was coming home from the hospital last night after 3 days at work because of the storm. He only made it home for a couple of hours when this happened. All of the area ER staffs in the area have been going non-stop since Tuesday when all hell broke loose with the storm.
UPDATE 10:19 a.m.: Sheriff David Morgan said during a press conference this morning there could be inmates who escaped or were buried in the rubble of the Escambia County Jail after an explosion Wednesday night.
Two unidentified inmates were killed and approximately 150 detainees and corrections officers were injured when a gas line at the jail exploded around 11 p.m. Wednesday, according to county officials.
Morgan said the county is working with state and federal agencies to perform a head count of all 600 personnel, including officers, who were in the jail at the time of the explosion.
Wounded inmates were taken to five area hospitals and healthy inmates were transported to other jails all over the area, but Morgan said some of them could have been lost in the shuffle.
“It is possible inmates could have escaped,” Morgan said.
He also said that it’s possible that inmates could still be in the debris of the building, but that no one can go inside the jail to check until engineers determine the building is structurally sound.
“It’s pretty much complete destruction,” Morgan said.
Officials will not know what inmates are uncounted for until they can check them all off individually using a master list of prisoner’s names, according to Morgan. There is currently no estimated time of completion for that headcount.
The explosion reportedly originated in the rear of the first floor of the building, the sheriff said.
He said the floor sustained some flooding in the previous night’s rain, but that jail officials did not evacuate the inmates because “the area in the building where flooding occurred did not endanger inmates.”
County officials say they are still investigating if and how the flooding contributed to the explosion.
UPDATE 9:52 a.m.: Sheriff David Morgan said during a press conference this morning that there could be inmates who escaped or were buried in the rubble of the Escambia County Jail following an explosion night.
Two unidentified inmates were killed and approximately 150 detainees and corrections officers were injured when a gas line at the jail exploded around 11 p.m. Wednesday, according to county officials.
Morgan said the county is working with state and federal agencies to perform a head count of all 600 personnel, including officers, who were in the jail at the time of the explosion.
The inmates were transported to five local hospitals and jails all over the area after the explosion, and Morgan said there is a possibility that some prisoners could have escaped during the confusion.
He said that officials will not know what inmates are uncounted for until they can check them all of individually using a master list of prisoner’s names.
Morgan said at this point there is no estimated time of completion.
Update 8:40 a.m.: In the wake of a deadly explosion at Escambia County Jail, families are frantically trying to figure out if their loved ones are OK.
Shortly after 11 p.m., a gas explosion rocked the central booking area of the jail, killing two detainees, according to county officials.
A total of 150 inmates and corrections officers were injured in the blast.The detainees at the jail have been transported to other facilities, but their loved ones don’t know where they are or if they are injured.
Sarah Sedes rushed to the jail this morning with her aunt to see if her cousin was among the wounded or dead. Hours later, she still doesn’t know.
“They haven’t given us any information,” Sedes said. “No one will even tell us if he’s alive.”
County spokesman Bill Pearson said that the interim county administrator, the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are working to confirm everyone’s location.
“The complicated part is we’ve had people taken to hospitals, to other jails,” he said. “It’s a moving target.”
Once the list of people and their locations has been compiled, it will be published on bereadyescambia.com, Pearson said.
The county is tentatively planning a 9 a.m. press conference.
Update 8:30 a.m.: The Escambia County Fire Marshall is at the scene of the blast this morning. The area is still cordoned off, and bystanders are being told to stand back. County officials are expected to brief the media later this morning on the latest developments. Leonard Street between F and L streets is closed.
Original Story:
Two people were killed and scores injured Wednesday night, when “an apparent gas explosion” demolished a portion of the Escambia County Central Booking and Detention Center. The blast, which occurred around 11 p.m., rattled houses up to three miles away and forced county officials to evacuate some 600 prisoners.
Droves of police officers and first responders roamed up and down Leonard Street in the wee hours of Thursday morning, coralling prisoners into school buses so they could be transported to detention facilities elsewhere in the region. Emergency personnel from as far away as Orange Beach, Ala., responded to the scene.
Families frustrated by lack of information from jail
Kathleen Dough-Castro, chief public information officer for the county, said male prisoners were being transported to detention facilities across Escambia County. About 200 female prisoners also were taken to the Santa Rosa County Jail, she said.
The total number of injured had not been determined by early Thursday morning. However, Castro placed the number at more than 100. Dozens of people — both inmates and corrections officers — were taken out of the jail on stretchers and transported to area hospitals under police guard.
Sacred Heart Hospital spokesman Mike Burke said Thursday that 31 people had been admitted to the hospital in relation to the incident — all with non life-threatening injuries. Eighty-one victims were also being treated at Baptist Hospital facilities in Pensacola (50, 12 treated and released) and Gulf Breeze (31, 13 treated and released), a spokeswoman said Thursday morning. Meanwhile, 37 patients were being treated for “minor injuries” at West Florida Hospital, spokesman Kendrick Doidge said.
By 2 a.m., search and rescue crews had accounted for all jail personnel and all but two prisoners, Escambia County Fire Chief Steve Booth said. The chief said that two unidentified inmates had also been confirmed dead.