Staff writer
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, right? Not necessarily at Marion County Jail.
Sheriff Robert Craft, undersheriff David Huntley, deputies, Marion and Hillsboro police, and Marion fire were called Sunday to a possible fire at the jail after a jailer discovered smoke around 4 a.m.
“You could see smoke coming through the heating vents in two inmates’ cell areas,” Craft said.
Officers assisted jailers with moving inmates to a different part of the jail while the cause of the smoke was investigated.
“If we were going to move inmates we wanted enough people to safely and securely do that,” Craft said.
However, the source of the fire was not discovered, he said.
“The fire was not inmate-related, Craft said.
He said it is believed that the smoke came from an electrical motor system that overheated somewhere in the building.
“Eventually it cleared up and cleared out and everybody was re-housed. We haven’t had any smoke since,” Craft said.
“We’re having difficulty pinpointing it right now because everything is functioning.”