Nineteen hurt when ceiling collapses at Texas jail
7/19/2014Diboll, Texas - A ceiling at a Texas jail collapsed on Saturday, injuring 19 inmates, with one of those hurt airlifted to a Houston hospital, officials said.
The suspended ceiling fell onto inmates in a common area of the Diboll Correctional Center in Diboll, Texas, said Bobby Hobbs, a battalion commander with the Lufkin Fire Department.
Those hurt were taken to hospitals. Some were critically injured and many had scrapes and bruises, he said.
“Obviously sheetrock falling from 10, 15 feet (3, 4.5 meters), you take a pretty good lick,” said Hobbs, who oversaw response to the incident.
Management & Training Corp of Centerville, Utah, runs the jail, and a spokesman said there were 86 prisoners in the housing unit. One of the injured was flown to Houston, about 100 miles (160 km) to the south, he said in an email.
The cause of the collapse was under investigation, he said.