< Back to front page Text size – +

Prisoners at Cambridge jail evacuated after disturbance and flooding

E-mail|Link|Comments () July 5, 2009 03:09 PM

By Matt Collette and Michael Corcoran, Globe Correspondents

CAMBRIDGE -- Close to 200 prisoners at Middlesex Jail were evacuated on buses to four jails in and around Boston after several prisoners damaged the fire suppression system causing massive flooding, according to the Middlesex County Sheriff.

About 15 prisoners came down with a flu-like illness this morning and as jail officials were transporting them to hospitals and cleaning up, several inmates “got upset” and started to act unruly, said Sheriff James V. DiPaola.

About nine prisoners attacked the building's fire suppression system, smashing sprinklers and tearing down pipes leading to “massive flooding” DiPaola said.

The Cambridge Fire Department asked the sheriff’s office to turn off the building’s power, he said, and officials began evacuating the inmates.

A neighbor on Otis Street said he heard a very loud noise around 11:30 a.m.

"Sirens have been driving us crazy all day - back and forth, back and forth - so I knew something was up," he said.

The jail was built in the early 1970s to hold 160 inmates awaiting trial, but today there were 403 inmates inside. This afternoon, the 187 inmates charged with the most serious crimes were transported to facilities in Billerica, Middleton, Dedham, and Boston, DiPaola said.

DiPaola said Middlesex Jail on Thorndike Street in East Cambridge has been overcrowded for many years, often holding up to 400 prisoners in a building designed for 160.

"We have been trying to get a new facility," he said.

Officials from the Cambridge police and fire departments were on scene, as well as the sheriff's office.

The illness the prisoners were suffering was not the H1N1 virus, said DiPaola.