FULTON COUNTY, GA — A fire at the Fulton County Jail sent nine people including five inmates and four staffers to the hospital on Friday evening.
Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat says Atlanta fire crews and the jail’s sprinkler system helped put out the blaze.
Investigators say the fire broke out on the seventh floor in an un-renovated area of the jail.
“There were 118 detainees in the horseshoe, in the zones and we’re medically going through to make sure everyone is okay,” Labat said.
According to Labat, the fire was “the result of one inmate that gathered a bunch of garbage and put it in the shower. That’s what preliminary it looks like.”
Critics have been speaking out after the fire. “Oh no, not again,” is how Southern Center for Human Rights’ Senior Policy Council Devin Franklin described his first thought after hearing about the fire.
“The immediate thought about that was this was predictable and foreseeable given what we know about the state of management at the Fulton County Jail,” Franklin said.
He said officials