PENDLETON — Three firefighters and an employee at the Pendleton Correctional Facility were injured Wednesday, Sept. 26, after a fire destroyed the prison’s mental health treatment center.
Twelve area fire departments responded to the fire, which started at about 8 a.m., Pendleton Correctional Facility spokeswoman Michelle Rains said.
According to Warden Dushan Zatecky, a maintenance staff member who was injured was “sent to outside medical for smoke inhalation.”
One firefighter was hospitalized for smoke inhalation, and two others were treated at the scene and released, he said in a press release.
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The prison is located at 4490 W. Reformatory Road.
The fire prompted the evacuation of offenders and staff from the treatment center — which is used for mental health services, such as group classes — and a contiguous auto body center. Offenders were sent to their dormitories or cells.
The fire was contained to the treatment center, which was a total loss.
“This is a non-housing unit building, and no offenders are being evacuated from the facility,” Rains wrote in an email to The Times-Post mid-morning on Sept. 26. “Our perimeter is secure and there is no threat to our neighboring community.”
An emergency count was conducted, during which all staff and offenders were accounted for.
Pendleton Correctional Facility is a minimum- and maximum-security prison.
Established in 1923, its average daily population in 2017 was 1,745. It has dormitory housing and celled space.
According to Rains, as of Tuesday the cause of the fire was still under investigation by the Indiana State Fire Marshal’s Office.
