Inmate Starts Rikers Island Fire, Hospitalizing 15, After Lawmakers' Visit: DOC

QUEENS — Fifteen Rikers Island staff members and five inmates were injured Thursday after an incarcerated man started a fire in the troubled jail complex, officials said. The blaze began just hours after Democratic New York lawmakers toured the facility to inspect conditions.

The city Department of Corrections told Patch that 10 staff members and the five inmates were taken to area hospitals for smoke inhalation.

The New York City Fire Department said five additional people declined medical attention, and did not release information on victims’ conditions Friday, per the Associated Press.

The man in custody started the fire in his cell around 1:20 p.m., according to the city corrections department. Officials say the inmate was in the North Infirmary Command, which houses people with illnesses, disabilities, and some detainees in the general population.

Twelve units and 60 firefighters arrived to battle the blaze on Rikers Island around 1:30 p.m., officials said. Fire crews and the jail fire safety unit had the blaze under control by 2:13 p.m., according to officials. Original article — All-Hands Fire Breaks Out On Rikers Island, 1 Injured: FDNY

James Boyd, deputy commissioner for public information for the city corrections department, said the health and safety of those who live and work in DOC facilities “is our main priority.”

“We take arson very seriously, and will pursue re-arrest of the individual involved pending the outcome of the investigation,” Boyd said in a statement to Patch.

The blaze appears to have started after Senator Kristen Gonzalez, Senator Jabari Brisport, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, Assemblymember Tony Simone, and others had left.

The lawmakers were visiting amid reports of unsafe and inhumane conditions at the facility, and expressed their rejection of Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposal to increase pre-trial detention.

This article contains reporting from Patch's Coral Murphy Marcos.