The Associated Press said that the Escambia County Jail that exploded on May 1st was the subject of a five-year federal investigation and had several problems. Among the many problems at the Florida jail included unmanned posts, the inadequate number of guards posted at the facility, troubling violence and the jail's decades-long practice of segregating inmates based on race. The problems were outlined in a Justice Department report issued last year, which led to the facility being treated like a hot potato among local officials.
45 year-old David Paul Weinstein and 54 year-old Robert Earl Simmons were killed in an apparent gas explosion at the five-story facility, officials have said. Around 200 inmates and prison guards obtained injuries as a result of the blast, and had also cost the loss of the facility that has housed them.
USA Today said that the blast was caused by a natural gas line that leaked and had torn through the laundry area of the Escambia County jail. The other areas affected by the blast were the Jail Central Booking Division. Baptist Hospital facilities in Pensacola and Gulf Breeze, Sacred Heart Hospital and West Florida Hospital emergency rooms. The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' National Response Team is currently investigating the explosion.
When asked to confirm reports that a pregnant inmate had gone into labor during the chaos following the blast, chief public information officer Kathleen Dough-Castro for the county said that she is inclined to decline comment due to restrictions stated in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.
"I can say that a pregnant inmate was removed almost immediately after the blast, and she appeared to have been in labor," Castro said.
In an email interview regarding the blast conducted by USA Today, assistant director Bev DeMello at the Florida Public Service Commission said that the problem appears to have not been part of the gas main or service lines maintained by the state-owned gas facility Pensacola Energy but a gas source inside the jail facility.
