1979 — Dec 27, Fire, Lancaster County Jail, Lancaster, SC — 11

— 11  Bell, James R. “Eleven Die in Jail Fire.” Fire Journal, July 1980, pp. 23-25, and 90.

— 11  NFPA. “Recent Multi-Fatality Fires,” US Congress, House. Boarding Home Fires, 71-73.

— 11  National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. 1983, p. 137.

— 10  Aiken Standard, SC. “Fatal Lancaster Jail Fire Came Two Weeks too…” 12-28-1979, p. 1.

 

Narrative Information

 

Bell: “During the early evening hours of December 17 [27], 1979, a fire in the Lancaster County Jail in the city of Lancaster, South Carolina, resulted in the deaths of 11 inmates and injuries to seven other persons. The fire originated in materials stored in a cellblock walk-around area. Although the fire was confined to the cellblock of origin, heavy smoke and heat spread throughout the jail, hindering rescue attempts.

 

“The fatalities in this fire can be attributed to the following factors:

 

  • The storage of combustible materials without enclosure in proximity to occupied cells, which provided fuel for a rapidly developing fire;
  • A lack of means to prevent the prompt and effective release of inmates from the locked areas;
  • The presence of a single jailer, without additional monitoring or detection capability to continuously guarantee supervision of cell areas;
  • Failure to extinguish the fire in its incipient stage;
  • The lack of other fire protection features to provide defend-in-place protection for the jail area….”

 

(Bell, James R. “Eleven Die in Jail Fire.” Fire Journal, July 1980, pp. 23-25, and 90.)

 

Dec 28: “Lancaster (AP) – Ten inmates died when a fire sent smoke billowing through a 156-year-old jail described by a law enforcement official as ‘a fortress.’  Only three prisoners housed on the second floor of the Lancaster County jail, a…two-story masonry structure built in 1823, survived the fire Thursday night.  Officials said the county was scheduled to move the jail and offices of the sheriff’s department in two weeks to a new building on the outskirts of Lancaster.  Two inmates and a fireman remained hospitalized this morning for smoke inhalation, according to a spokeswoman at Elliott White Springs Memorial Hospital…

 

“Capt. J. Leon Gasque, assistant director of the State Law Enforcement Division, said investigators had not determined how the fire started… He said a SLED arson unit is investigating the fire, which broke out at 6:15 p.m. on the second floor.  Gasque said the jail was quickly engulfed in smoke, but a jailer succeeded in rescuing two inmates.  The cause of death was undetermined ‘but it looks like smoke inhalation,’ he said.  ‘This building was fixing to be done away with,’ Gasque added.  He said it was ‘one of the old Mills-designed jails, and it’s lie a fortress.’  The jail was one of a number of South Carolina buildings designed by Robert Mills, a Charleston architect who designed the Washington Monument and other noted structures….

 

“The fire was brought under control about 7:30…. SLED spokesman Hugh Munn said the jailer…and a highway patrolman…were on the same floor with the 13 inmates when the fire broke out.  The two officers and a trusty…who was downstairs, smelled smoke and ran to open the jail doors.  Munn said Cole had the keys and succeeded in opening one of two doors to the cellblock.  But he was unable to open the other door, which may have been blocked by the body of an unconscious inmate… While Cole was trying to unlock the second door he heard the men inside calling for help…The heavy smoke forced Cole and the officers to retreat.  The highway patrolman had already telephoned the fire department and firemen wearing gas masks retrieved the bodies a short time later.”  (Aiken Standard. “Fatal Lancaster Jail Fire…” Dec 28, 1979, p. 1.

 

Sources

 

Aiken Standard, SC. “Fatal Lancaster Jail Fire Came Two Weeks Too Soon” 12-28-1979, p. 1. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=106608225

 

Bell, James R. “Eleven Die in Jail Fire.” Fire Journal, July 1980, pp. 23-25, and 90.

 

National Fire Protection Association. “Recent Multi-Fatality Fires.”  In:  U.S. Congress, House.  Boarding Home Fires: New Jersey (Hearing, March 9, 1981), pp. 71-73.

 

National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. Quincy, MA: NFPA, 1983.