What to Know
- A fire started by an inmate at New York City’s troubled Rikers Island jail injured 20 people on a day lawmakers visited the jail complex, authorities said.
- Fifteen staff members and five inmates were injured in the fire that started around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, the city Department of Corrections said.
- The New York City Fire Department extinguished the fire within an hour, a department spokesman said.
NEW YORK — A fire started by an inmate at New York City’s troubled Rikers Island jail injured 20 people on a day lawmakers visited the jail complex, authorities said.
Fifteen staff members and five inmates were injured in the fire that started around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, the city Department of Corrections said. The New York City Fire Department extinguished the fire within an hour, a department spokesman said.
Fifteen of the injured were taken to hospitals for treatment, while the other five refused medical attention, the Fire Department said. Information about the conditions of the victims was not available on Friday.
“The health and safety of those who work and live at our facilities is our top priority,” said James Boyd, deputy commissioner for public information for the Department of Corrections, in a statement from the individual involved pending the outcome of the investigation.
The fire broke out on a day when a group of Democratic state legislators visited Rikers Island to underscore their opposition to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed changes to New York’s bail laws. The plan to give judges more leeway in setting bail is one of the key issues stalling state budget negotiations.
Lawmakers pointed to rising deaths at Rikers Island and warned of dire results if bail reforms passed in 2019 are reversed and more inmates are sent to Rikers and other jails.
“We will have blood on our hands if we allow these changes to our New York State budget to be implemented,” said Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.
State lawmakers did not visit the unit where the fire occurred and appear to have left before it was reported.
