1967 — July 16, Riot and Fire, State Prison Road Camp 12 barracks, Jay, FL — 38

–38 AP. “Death Toll Rises In Road Camp Fire.” Herald-Tribune, Sarasota, FL. 7-20-1967, p.18.
–38 FL Department of Corrections. Florida Corrections – Centuries of Progress, 1966-1969.
–38 NFPA. “The Major Fires of 1967.” Fire Journal, Vol. 62, No. 3, May 1968, p. 6.
¬¬–38 NY Times. “Florida Inmates Work on Chain Gangs Without Chains.” 2-20-1983, p. 60.
–37 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 335.

Narrative Information

Florida Department of Corrections: “Prisoners working the roads became a common sight in Florida and several other states. In later years, convict camps also existed in this area at places like Lake Merial and in Panama City south of 15th Street on the west side of Balboa Avenue. But on July 16, 1967, the flash inferno of a 40-by-90-foot old World War II barrack used as a stockade at Berrydale, near Jay, helped end this type of chain gang system in Florida.

“According to the Pensacola Journal of July 17, 1967, 37 men burned to death in the fire. The building was a known fire hazard and was scheduled to be phased out by the state. At this camp and similar camps all over Florida, convicts were locked inside the stockade. By that time, leg irons and sweat boxes had been eliminated, but a guard still controlled inmates from behind a chain link fence or cage. The guard watched over the only entrance and held a shotgun. Inmates needed his permission to make any move.

“The tragic incident took place during the civil rights era when racial unrest simmered around the country. The camp was composed of all black inmates until the beginning of July, when the state brought in 15 white prisoners to integrate the camp and increase its population to 51. During the first two weeks of July guards broke up two fights in the remote camp. The riot on Sunday, July 16, began about 10 p.m. when a guard took a contraband book away from Thomas E. Ard of Pensacola.

“Prisoners began smashing the fluorescent light fixtures. They hurled their television set to the floor. A.O. Lovett, the guard on duty, realized the situation had gotten out of control. He ran outside and tossed the keys over the high barbed wire fence so guard Richard E. Cobb could unlock the prison arsenal for additional guns. In the meantime, Ard and Earl Hoffman, another white prisoner, and black inmate Joseph E. Wynder set fire to pieces of newspaper and toilet paper at each end of the building, possibly believing their actions would get them transferred.

“When Lovett returned the fire was “tree-top high.” He claimed he made four passes before he could open the stockade door due to the tremendous heat. But others told of a long delay because the guard had to go to the camp office to get the key.

“Only 14 escaped the fire. Afterward 19 bodies were found huddled 4 feet high in the shower room where they sought safety. Sixteen were discovered stacked beneath a barred window. In the smoldering fire the next morning, one wall remained standing along with the steel cage, where the guard had been stationed. In Milton, the coroner’s jury ruled the fire was “a criminal act of arson.” Ard, Hoffman and Wynder all died in the flames.”

“In the July 1967 Correctional Compass employee newsletter, then-Division of Corrections Director Louie L. Wainwright had this to say of the fire and subsequent heroic actions of DC employee Arnie O. Lovett.

“In the tragic fire which claimed the lives of 38 inmates at Jay Road Prison on July 16, 1967, newspaper accounts commended the action of Officer Arnie O. Lovett. He was one of the men on duty when the inmates set their barracks on fire. Some of the inmates were apparently immobilized by fear as the curtain of flame separating them from the door grew nearer. Lovett went in and brought five of them out by pushing them ahead of him through the door. As a result, Officer Lovett was himself burned and later received treatment at Century Hospital. His action in the face of considerable danger is in the highest tradition of the correctional service.”

(Florida Department of Corrections. Florida Corrections – Centuries of Progress, 1966-1969.)

NFPA: “The worst loss of life in the United States and Canada in 1967 [by fire] occurred on July 16 in Berrydale, Florida. The 51 prisoners who were housed in a one-story wooden barracks building started a riot. One guard gave his keys to another, who left to open the arms cabinet in the prison office, which was in a separate building. While he was absent the inmates set the building afire. The fire spread quickly, with heat and smoke drawn through the building by a large window fan. The remaining guard did not have his keys to release the prisoners from the building. When the second guard returned the doors were opened, but by that time 35 of the prisoners had already died in the fire. Of the 16 who managed to es¬cape, three died later.” (NFPA. “The Major Fires of 1967.” Fire Journal, Vol. 62, No. 3, May 1968, p. 6.)

NYT, 1983: “….The turning point, most officials agree, came on July 16, 1967, when 38 prisoners, hobbled by leg shackles, died in a fire that destroyed a barracks in the road prison at Jay, a town in northwestern Florida. The brutality common to chain gangs at that time was disclosed when the fire was investigated…..” (New York Times. “Florida Inmates Work on Chain Gangs Without Chains.” 2-20-1983, p. 60.)

Newspapers

July 16: “By The Associated Press. Jay, Fla., July 16 – Fire, apparently started during a convict brawl, flashed through a wooden barracks at the State Prison road camp late tonight, killing 37 inmates and injuring six others. Eight of the 51 prisoners in the aging structure escaped the fire unharmed. The six injured prisoners were seriously burned. They were taken to the hospital at nearby Century.

“G. C. Mayne Jr., assistant warden at the racially integrated camp, said fighting prisoners broke a gas line inside the building. Escaping gas flared when a fluorescent lamp was broken, he said.

“Guards had raced to get their guns to quell the fighting when the fire erupted, according to a guard, Cocker Nelson.

“The building was destroyed withing eight minutes, Mr. Nelson said.

“Pasco Rowells, a foreman of the State Highway Department, who supervised the men at work, said the fight began between a Negro and a white man.

“The sheriff’s radio dispatcher, H. C. Crawford, said a prisoner brought to the jail told him, ‘The whole room was wrapped up with fire.’

“‘Somebody hollered ‘fire’,’ the prisoner, Gerald Milligan, was quoted as saying. Milligan, who said he had been sitting on his bed removing his shoes, said the blaze ‘swept the whole top of the building.’ ‘They began to pass out,’ the prisoner was quoted as telling officials. Milligan said he ducked under beds and crawled toward the door holding his nose. Just as he got to the door the guard opened it and Milligan escaped with only his hair singed, he said.

“Paul Skelton, assistant to the director of Florida’s Division of Corrections, said it was inconceivable to him that men were killed because they were not able to get out of the prison, which he said is composed of one-story wooden buildings with no bars on the windows.

“The camp is in Jay, a farming community in the extreme northwestern tip of Florida’s Panhandle. The camp is about 30 miles north of Pensacola at the Alabama state line.” (New York Times. “37 Killed in Fire At A Prison Camp In North Florida.” 7-17-1967, p. 1.)

July 18: “Milton, Fla. (AP) – Convicts under shotgun guard have testified that three cellmates deliberately set the prison fire that burned 37 inmates to death. Among those who died were the three accused of setting the blaze.

“As the formal inquest into the Sunday night fire at State Prison Road Camp 12 at Jay, Fla., started in Santa Rosa County Courthouse, 22 bodies sacked in olive drab body bags lay outside the old county jail awaiting positive identification.

“The coroner’s inquest will decide if criminal negligence or homicide was involved in the tragedy.

“On the table before County Judge Marion McCall Monday were the prison files of all 51 men who had been in the locked and barred barracks at Camp 12. Of the 51, eight were in the county jail unharmed, six were in hospitals with burns and 37 had perished.

“The convicts testified that it was about six minutes after the fire started before guard A. O. Lovett unlocked the barred ‘cage door’ and a solid wooden door to let them flee.

“Lovett took the stand and testified that a smashing, shouting disturbance broke out first and he ran to toss the keys over a high barbed-wire fence to guard Richard E. Cobb, who used them to unlock the prison arsenal. ‘We had to get longer guns,’ Lovett said. When he saw the fire and returned, Lovett said, ‘I made four passes before I could open the door. It was so hot I had trouble seeing.’….” (Associated Press. “Convicts, Guards Tell Of Fatal Prison Fire.” Panama City Herald, FL. 7-18-1967, p. 1.)

July 19: “Tallahassee, Fla. (AP) – A state prison camp where 37 convicts died in a fire was a known fire hazard that was scheduled to be phased out of operation, Florida’s Cabinet learned Tuesday. Doyle Conner, state agriculture commissioner and chairman of the Cabinet’s subcommittee on corrections, said state agents ‘knew’ the World War II type wooden barracks at Road Camp 12, near Jay, were hazardous because of their flammable nature. Conner said the Jay camp was one of 13 with wooden barracks that the state has been removing from the prisons system. ‘We’ve been phasing out two to three each year,’ he said. ‘Obviously this should be accelerated and many of us regret we did not do it sooner.’

“In Milton, a coroner’s jury ruled the Sunday night fire was a ‘criminal act of arson.’ It said the fire was started by three prisoners – Thomas E. Ard, 28, of Pensacola; Earl F. Hoffman, 41, of Tallahassee; and Joseph Earl Wynder, 21 of Marianna. All died in the flames.

“The jury indicated it did not attempt to determine why the prisoners set the fire, but a guard testified he believed the fire was intended as retribution for his confiscation of a pornographic book from Ard.” (Associated Press. “Jay Prison Camp Was Fire Hazard.” Panama City Herald, FL, 7-19-1967, p. 5.)

July 20: “Tallahassee (AP) – The death toll of prisoners killed in the Jap prison camp fire rose to 38 Wednesday with the death of Jimmy Copeland, who escaped from the fast-spreading flames but was severely injured. Prison authorities confirmed here that Copeland died in Baptist Hospital in Pensacola….Copeland was 29….” (Associated Press. “Death Toll Rises In Road Camp Fire.” Herald-Tribune, Sarasota, FL. 7-20-1967, p.18.)

Sources

Associated Press. “Convicts, Guards Tell Of Fatal Prison Fire.” Panama City Herald, FL. 7-18-1967, p. 1. Accessed 6-5-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/panama-city-herald-jul-18-1967-p-1/

Associated Press. “Death Toll Rises In Road Camp Fire.” Herald-Tribune, Sarasota, FL. 7-20-1967, p.18. Accessed 6-5-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/sarasota-herald-tribune-jul-20-1967-p-20/

Associated Press. “Jay Prison Camp Was Fire Hazard.” Panama City Herald, FL, 7-19-1967, p. 5. Accessed 6-5-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/panama-city-herald-jul-19-1967-p-5/

Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982.

Florida Department of Corrections. Florida Corrections – Centuries of Progress, 1966-1969. Accessed at: http://www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/timeline/1966-1969.html

National Fire Protection Association. “The Major Fires of 1967.” Fire Journal, Vol. 62, No. 3, May 1968, pp. 5-7.

New York Times. “37 Killed in Fire At A Prison Camp In North Florida.” 7-17-1967, p. 1. Accessed 6-5-2020 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/07/17/issue.html

New York Times. “Florida Inmates Work on Chain Gangs Without Chains.” 2-20-1983, p. 60. Accessed 6-5-2020 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/20/us/florida-inmates-work-on-chain-gangs-without-chains.html