Correction Department record keeping is so poor, officials couldn’t say how long ago they shut down a sprinkler system that should have protected detainees and staff in an April 6 fire that injured 20 people, says an internal agency report obtained by the Us.Mistertruth.
The system was shut down after a detainee broke a sprinkler head, says the report. When that happened — and whether the Correction Department tried to fix it — was unclear, said the report by Mario Antonetti of the Office of Compliance Consultants.
The office monitors conditions at Rikers Island conditions as part of the decades-old Benjamin class action lawsuit, which among other things deals with fire safety issues.
Photos obtained by The News show the damage caused by the blaze, allegedly started by detainee Marvens Thomas as he protested the confiscation of detainees’ possessions in the high security unit inside the North Infirmary Command. State legislators were touring Rikers the day of the fire.
“The photos indicated very heavy damage for a building protected by a complete sprinkler system,” Antonetti wrote in the April 24 assessment of the incident.
Thomas was severely injured in the fire. While the sprinkler system did not function, the smoke detectors did, Antonetti’s report said.
“DOC [the Department of Correction] was called to determine why the heavy damage occurred with sprinkler protection in place,” Antonetti wrote.
“DOC indicated that the sprinklers protection for this area had been shut down due to a sprinkler being damaged by an inmate,” Antonetti wrote. “The sprinkler was not replaced in a timely manner; therefore the system was still out of service. The length of time of the sprinkler impairment was not known.”
The sprinklers have been fixed, the Correction Department said Thursday.
“Due to persons in custody routinely damaging infrastructure in the facility, there was a delay in repairing the sprinkler system in the area where the fire occurred,” the department said in a statement. “This sprinkler system has since been repaired and is scheduled for routine testing. We have implemented new protocols to ensure quick repair of damaged sprinkler systems moving forward.”
Robert Quackenbush, a Legal Aid Society lawyer, noted that the compliance consultants have taken the Correction Department to task repeatedly over the agency’s failure to keep up with repairs of critical systems, such as the sprinklers.
“DOC has been on notice for well over a year that its failure to track work orders was causing confusion among DOC remediation staff and was causing dangerous conditions to remain unabated for months on end,” Quackenbush said.
“Having inoperable sprinklers is the functional equivalent of having no sprinklers at all. If DOC can’t safely confine people in its facilities, it has no business confining them at all.”
Lawyer MK Kaishian has filed notices of claim on behalf of four detainees who had been held in the unit alleging DOC staff abandoned their posts rather than fight the fire. A notice of claim is a notification of an intent to sue filed with the city comptroller’s office.
“DOC members conducted a raid, confiscating personal items that had previously been approved for possession by detained people, including the shoes from their feet,” Kaishian wrote.
“The smoke became thick and (Kaishian’s client), who is asthmatic, struggled to breathe. DOC staff members assigned to the area were absent from their posts. For approximately 10-15 minutes, there was no response from DOC personnel.”
A correction officer tried to use a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze, but the device malfunctioned, The News previously reported.
It took more than 25 minutes from 1:20 p.m. when the fire was reported, to 1:45 p.m. when the FDNY arrived, stretched a hose inside and doused the blaze, Antonetti reported.
The compliance consultants have requested video from DOC of the incident that they had yet to receive.
A Board of Correction special meeting was abruptly cancelled minutes before it was to start Thursday afternoon. Sources said the closed meeting was to discuss the Correction Department’s decision to limit the board’s access to jail security video.