Two people were killed and more than 100 injured in a gas explosion at the Escambia County Jail in Pensacola, Fla., the Associated Press reports.
According to the report, the explosion occurred about 11 p.m. CDT Wednesday in a booking facility at the jail, causing the building—in which about 600 inmates were being housed—to partially collapse.
Escambia County Public Information Manager Kathleen Castro told the AP that while she could not confirm whether flooding was a factor in the deadly blast, she indicated that the jail had been subject to a lot of flooding during recent heavy rains.
Inmates who were not hurt in the blast were transferred to neighboring jails, while injured inmates and correction officers were taken to four area hospitals.
A spokeswoman for Sacred Heart, one of the hospitals that treated some of the injured, said that of the 31 patients they treated, most had neck and back injuries. West Florida Hospital cared for 37 inmates, all of whom were treated and returned to the custody of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. A group of 12 out of the 50 patients taken to Baptist Hospital, and another 13 out of 31 treated at the Gulf Breeze Hospital were also treated and released, the AP reports.
Names of the two people killed by the explosion were not released.
Read more at the New York Times.