Minor Damage & No Injuries Following Laundry Room Fire at the Brazos County Jail

A fire at the Brazos County jail Tuesday night resulted in minor damage and no injuries.

Sheriff Chris Kirk says the fire was in a laundry room in a housing unit that does not hold inmates.

The preliminary source of the fire was traced to a damaged dryer vent where lint was ignited.

Kirk says an inmate worker assigned to laundry duty reported hearing a “pop” and saw smoke near the rear of one of two commercial sized dryers. That was followed by fire alarms being activated.

The sheriff says detention officers responded to the laundry room with extinguishers and self-contained breathing apparatus. Two officers used the air packs to enter used extinguishers on the dryer. The jail’s smoke removal system was activated and began moving smoke from the area.

Kirk says when Bryan firefighters arrived, they broke a hole through the ceiling and used additional extinguishers to put out the fire.

Kirk says additional inspections and cleaning will be done this week on dryer vents, which is in addition to what is done on a regular basis by the county’s facilities department.

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