Authorities told KTLA that seven deputies at the Los Angeles County Sheriff Men’s Central Jail in Chinatown were taken to nearby hospitals on Tuesday after being exposed to an unknown substance.
In the last eight hours, this is the second time that the L.A. Fire Department has been called to the building at 441 Bauchet St.
Early this morning, medical staff from the fire department went to the jail because it was said that “seven people, all believed to be inmates, may have inhaled or been exposed to a yet to be formally identified substance within the jail facility.”
Police from the sheriff’s office called what happened earlier a “suspected overdose incident” in a news release released Tuesday evening.
The Fire Department said in an update that one of the patients was in critical condition and six others were in serious condition.
A hazardous materials team from the fire department was sent to the jail to check out the area. When they got there, they didn’t find any more patients and also found that the danger wasn’t getting worse.
At 2:55 p.m., firefighters arrived at the facility after seven deputies started to feel sick while searching the inmates’ dorms to make sure they were safe to repopulate. The symptoms were “potentially related to today’s earlier suspected overdose incident,” according to the release.
From above, you could see that there were a lot of L.A. fire crews and deputies outside the jail during the afternoon response.
Officials say that all seven deputies were awake and stable when they were taken to the hospital as a safety measure.
The situation “highlights the complex challenges our staff face in our jails, especially as we manage a more complicated population that includes people with serious medical conditions, severe mental health problems, and substance abuse problems,” the news release said.
The authorities also said that they are working hard to stop “illegal substances from entering our jail facilities” and are “optimistic that in the near future, we will be able to use updated technological solutions.”
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