PENSACOLA, Fla.-—An apparent gas explosion rocked a jail in the Florida Panhandle late Wednesday, killing two inmates, injuring as many as 150 people, and causing the building to partially collapse.
The jail is almost completely destroyed, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said Thursday at a news conference. Three inmates were unaccounted for, and one corrections officer was seriously injured, he said.
The explosion happened at about 11 p.m. CT at a booking facility at the Escambia County Jail. Firefighters entered the building Thursday morning. The front of the building appeared bowed out, with cracks throughout, with pieces of glass and brick strewn about on the ground. Authorities blocked off roads leading to the jail.
“The explosion shook us so hard it was like we were in an earthquake,” Monique Barnes, an inmate who said she was knocked off her fourth-floor bunk, told The Associated Press by phone. “It was like a movie, a horrible, horrible movie.”
Barnes said she and others in the jail had complained of smelling gas ahead of the blast late Wednesday, and some reported headaches. Toilets weren’t working, so they had to use plastic trash bags, Barnes said.
During the evacuation, hundreds of inmates and corrections officers used one stairwell, “everyone pushing and bleeding,” she said.
About 600 inmates—200 men and 400 women—were in the building at the time, said Kathleen Castro, the county’s public information manager. Those with injuries were taken to hospitals and the uninjured were taken to jails in neighboring counties, officials said.
Castro said authorities didn’t yet know the extent of injuries, but local hospitals said some people with minor issues had already been released.
The names of the two inmates killed in the explosion weren’t immediately released.
The Pensacola area was drenched by rains and severely flooded Wednesday as part of a large storm system making its way across the U.S. The building was affected, but officials don’t yet know whether the flooding and explosion are directly related, Ms. Castro said.
The generator was running at the time of the blast, but officials don’t believe that is related to the blast, Ms. Castro said. Investigators were on the scene. The fire marshal will determine the cause of the incident, she said.
Defense attorney Gene Mitchell, who stood outside the jail Thursday morning, said he had received dozens of text messages from clients’ relatives inquiring about their loved ones.
“I have over 20 clients in there,” he said. “I’ve had dozens of calls. Every other call is a family member wanting to know what has happened to a loved one.”
Mr. Mitchell said he hasn’t been able to get much information about the inmates. Ms. Castro said officials were having trouble notifying families because the instability of the building is preventing officials from entering the jail to access computers and paper records.
A couple of blocks from the jail, Ellis Robinson and his family awoke to a loud noise, their home rattling. “It shook the whole house,” he said. “I got up, the dog started barking, people were running up there.” He spent the night observing the chaos and watching as inmates were loaded into buses.
–Copyright 2014 Associated Press
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