Emergency crews responded Monday afternoon to a fire in a furniture factory on the Oregon State Penitentiary grounds in Salem.
No one was inside the factory when the fire occurred around 4:50 p.m., according to a statement from the penitentiary.
Workers at the Salem prison responded with fire extinguishers and called emergency services after seeing smoke coming out of the building’s factory roof vents.
Salem Fire Department crews extinguished the fire, tested the air and performed thermal imaging, according to prison officials. Their statement did not list the cause of the fire.
The furniture factory is part of Oregon Corrections Enterprises, a program in the state’s prison system that manufactures products for inside and outside the prison system, according to its website.
The program’s laundry services were evacuated and shut down as a precaution. They resumed Tuesday morning along with the furniture factory. An emergency count of people in custody also delayed the prison’s medication line and dinner by a couple of hours, according to the statement.
The fire damaged a spray booth, cart, barrel and rags in the factory, which operates Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Five penitentiary workers were evaluated in the emergency room for smoke inhalation. The prison reported no other injuries in its statement.
The penitentiary is the oldest and only maximum-security prison that the state operates. The prison holds about 1,500 people.
Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.
SUPPORT OUR WORK – We depend on subscribers for resources to report on Salem with care and depth, fairness and accuracy. Subscribe today to get our daily newsletters and more. Click I want to subscribe!
Ardeshir Tabrizian has covered criminal justice and housing for Salem Reporter since September 2021. As an Oregon native, his award-winning watchdog journalism has traversed the state. He has done reporting for The Oregonian, Eugene Weekly and Malheur Enterprise.
