Maury County Jail Fire of 1977

From Maurypedia
Revision as of 00:33, 11 February 2021 by Jedallas (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search

The Maury County Jail Fire of 1977 was a fire that broke out at the (now former) Maury County Jail on June 26, 1977.[1][2] Forty-two people -- 33 prisoners and 9 visitors -- died as the result of this fire. The fire has been included among the worst tragedies in Tennessee history.[3][4]

Background

The building then used as the Maury County Jail was constructed in 1963 and opened in 1964.[5][6] It replaced the previous jail that was constructed in 1884 that stood on the same site.[7] The building was constructed (more or less) in the shape of a cross, with four wings. The north wing (furthest from East 6th Street) was called the "workhouse" and had ten cells (five on either side) that housed four prisoners each. The west wing contained storage areas, the kitchen, laundry, and two maximum-security, two-person cells. The east wing contained two "drunk tanks", a padded cell for disruptive prisoners, and two eight-person cells (one of which was used for female prisoners). The south wing (nearest East 6th Street) contained the sheriff's office and other administrative and operational rooms. At the center of the jail was the dispatch room.[8][9]

The cell doors of the jail could be operated manually or remotely, but each door required a separate key, and there was only one set of keys on the premises.[10] The jail had portable dry-chemical fire extinguishers, but it had no manual fire alarm or smoke detectors, nor did it have a fire-suppression system (e.g. sprinklers). Due to a lack of a secure refuge area, the only practical response to a fire would be for all of the building's occupants to exit the building.[11][12] Despite the need for such an evacuation, Sheriff Bill Voss had not conducted any fire drills or developed evacuation plans for the building.[13] The jail was built from fire-resistant materials, but the padding in the padded room was combustible.[14] Despite these flaws, the Maury County Jail had been giving a passing grade - indeed, the head of the inspection department later praised it as "one of the better jails in the state" -- during a routine state inspection only two days before the fire (Friday, June 24).[15]

June 26 was a Sunday, which was a visitation day at the county jail. At the time of the fire, dozens of visitors were present.[16] The lobby door, normally open during visiting hours, had been locked that day due to a recent escape.[17]

Andrew Zinmer, an emotionally-disturbed 16-year old boy, was picked up by local law enforcement for hitch-hiking along Interstate 65 in southern Maury County on the morning of Saturday, June 25. Zinmer, who had run away from a Wisconsin state home earlier that week, was placed in his own cell apart from the adult population for his protection.[18][19][20] On Sunday, Zinmer was temporarily placed in the padded cell in the east wing of the jail after the toilet in his cell was plugged (allegedly by Zinmer himself as a prank), causing the cell to be flooded.[21][22]

Fire and Rescue Efforts

Sometime after 1:30 p.m., Zinmer asked one of the visitors in the jail for a cigarette.[23] The visitor obliged Zinmer's request and gave him an unlit cigarette and some means of ignition.[24] Several minutes later, a fire began in the padded room, and Zinmer began crying for help.[25] Smoke began to fill the hall outside the padded room.

Two deputies unlocked the door and were hit with a blast of hot, black smoke. One of the deputies reached into the padded room and pulled Zinmer to safety. Zinmer's clothes had been set on fire and he was suffering from burns (he would be the only person to have burn injuries in this fire).

Visitors began pushing their way to the exits as smoke filled the building, causing Sheriff's Criminal Investigator Jerry Wayne Dickey to be pinned against a wall and to drop the keys needed to unlock the cell doors. In the commotion, the keys were lost in the smoke.[26] It was only after firefighters arrived with oxygen masks that a search for the keys was able to commence, and by that time nearly 20 minutes had passed since the building had begun to fill with smoke.[27]

Trapped prisoners began to panic and pray; some attempted to use wet towels as makeshift masks; while others tried to turn on the showers to suppress the smoke in their cells (which was, ironically, futile, because the jail's water main ran in the ceiling above the padded room and was damaged by the fire).[28]

Out of desperation, sheriff's deputies began knocking holes in the jail's walls with a sledgehammer, cut steel bars with torches and saws, and pulled the bars out with a tow truck. Firefighters also broke out glass windows to try to ventilate the smoke-filled jail. All survivors were pulled through these holes.


Aftermath

References

  1. ↑ New York Times. "Tennessee Jail Fire Kills 42, Including Locked-Up Prisoners", 27 June 1977, p. 1, Web (nytimes.com), 10 Feb. 2021.
  2. ↑ "42 Die in Jail Fire." The Tennessean. 27 June 1977. p. 1. Web (newspapers.com). 10 Feb. 2021.
  3. ↑ Coggins, Allen. Tennessee Tragedies: Natural, Technological, and Social Disasters in the Volunteer State. Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press, 2012, pp. 113-114. Web (proquest.com). 10 Feb. 2021.
  4. ↑ "Jail Blaze Termed Worst Such Tragedy in History." The Tennessean. 27 June 1977, p. 15. Web (newspapers.com). 10 Feb. 2021.
  5. ↑ "42 Die in Maury County, Tennessee, Jail Fire." NFPA Fire Journal. March 1978. pp. 30-31, 37. Web (nfpa.org). 10 Feb. 2021.
  6. ↑ Schwartz, Jeffrey A., and Barry, Cynthia. A Guide to Preparing for and Responding to Jail Emergencies. Washington, United States Department of Justice-National Institute of Corrections, 2009, p. 155. Web (nicic.gov). 10 Feb. 2021.
  7. ↑ McClure, Sue. "Cell doors sprung for new duty." The Tennessean. 8 April 1999. p. 1B. Web (newspapers.com). 10 Feb. 2021.
  8. ↑ NFPA Fire Journal at pp. 30-31.
  9. ↑ Schwartz and Barry at pp. 155-156.
  10. ↑ Schwartz and Barry at p. 156. While there are some apparent discrepancies in Schwartz and Barry's recounting of the events, the fact that other sources (e.g. NFPA Fire Journal at p. 32) attest to a desperate effort by deputies and firefighters to find the keys strongly indicates that there was no backup set readily available. Schwartz and Barry claim that there was another set but that it was on the person of the sheriff (i.e, Bill Voss), who was attending church and socializing on that day.
  11. ↑ NFPA Fire Journal at pp. 30-31, 37.
  12. ↑ Schwartz and Barry at pp. 155-156.
  13. ↑ Hunt, Keel and Alexander, Pat. "Lockup System Possibly Hurt Rescue Effort." The Tennessean. 27 June 1977. p. 1. Web (newspapers.com). 10 Feb. 2021.
  14. ↑ NFPA Fire Journal at pp. 30-31.
  15. ↑ Associated Press. "No Fire Codes Violated in Jail." The (Clarksville, Tenn.) Leaf-Chronicle. 28 June 1977. p. 2. Web (newspapers.com). 10 Feb. 2021.
  16. ↑ NFPA Fire Journal at p. 31. The exact number of prisoners and visitors present is unclear; the NFPA Fire Journal report, which is a summary of the Tennessee State Fire Marshall's investigation, states that there were 63 prisoners in the jail at the time and 20 visitors present. The Tennessean article printed the day after the fire states 64 prisoners (they also stated 34 prisoners and 8 visitors died, so it is possible that one of the visitors was initially misidentified as being a prisoner). The New York Times states that there were 64 prisoners and 30 visitors at the jail when the fire started. Schwartz and Barry - who do not cite sources, although presumably had access to official reports -- state at p. 156 that the jail population was only 40 and do not state the number of visitors; their figure seems suspiciously low given 42 deaths and approximately 30 injuries (meaning that there must have been at least 72 people present). Coggins, whose work is based primarily on media reports, states 56 prisoners and 40 visitors. It is possible that the discrepancies were caused by the inclusion or exclusion of trusties (those inmates who have demonstrated good behavior and given lenient treatment and/or work assignments) as "prisoners".
  17. ↑ New York Times at p. 1.
  18. ↑ Schwartz and Barry at 156.
  19. ↑ Coggins at 113.
  20. ↑ Deckbar, Margaret. "Jail Fire Cited as Need for Runaway Program." 'The Tennessean. 28 June 1977. p. 22. Web (newspapers.com). 10 Feb. 2021.
  21. ↑ NFPA Fire Program at p. 31
  22. ↑ Coggins at p. 113.
  23. ↑ NFPA Fire Journal at p. 31.
  24. ↑ The NFPA Fire Journal at p. 31 states that the visitor gave Zinmer his own, lit cigarette to light his with; Schwartz and Barry at p. 156 state that the visitor gave Zinmer matches; Coggins at p. 113 states a match was given to Zinmer; contemporary reports quote the visitor who allegedly gave Zinmer the cigarette as saying he gave him one unlit and one lit cigarette (same as the NFPA Fire Journal account). UPI. "Maury Jail Visitor Admits He Passed Cigarettes To Boy Charged In Fire." The Kingsport (Tenn.) Times. 28 June 1977. p. 1. Web (newspapers.com)> 10 Feb. 2021.
  25. ↑ NFPA Fire Journal at p. 31.
  26. ↑ "42 Die in Jail Fire" cited above.
  27. ↑ NFPA Fire Journal at 32. Note that that the Columbia Fire Department was only about one minute away from the (now former) county jail.
  28. ↑ Thompson, Jerry. "Witnesses Describe Panic, Horror, Death." The Tennessean. 27 June 1977. p. 1. Web (newspapers.com). 10 Feb 2021.

External Links

Retrieved from "https://maurypedia.com/w/index.php?title=Maury_County_Jail_Fire_of_1977&oldid=846"