All-Hands Fire Breaks Out At Rikers Island: FDNY

QUEENS — A fire ignited on the second floor of the North Infirmary Command part of Rikers Island on Thursday, the Fire Department said, the same day lawmakers visited the facility to denounce unsafe conditions at city jails.

The flames erupted just after 1:30 p.m. at 15-00 Hazen Street, bringing 12 units and 60 firefighters to Rikers Island, officials said.

The Daily News reported that the blaze injured 20 people.

The fire was under control at 2:13 p.m. and the cause of the fire is under investigation, officials said.

The blaze ignited the same day state lawmakers visited Rikers Island amid reports of unsafe and inhumane conditions at the facility.

Senator Kristen Gonzalez, Senator Jabari Brisport, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, Assemblymember Tony Simone, and others expressed their rejection of Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposal to increase pre-trial detention.

"It's a very emotional place," Brisport said during a press conference outside the facility about 1 p.m. "A lot of times up in Albany, the governor or the legislators can get really distant from the material impacts of what happens when you send more people into pre-trial detention."

Brisport recounted the experiences of detainees he has spoken with, saying one of them was beaten up by a corrections officer, and another keeps get getting unexplained strip searches.

Groups such as the Legal Aid Society are also urging lawmakers to reject the proposed rollbacks.

“Judges already have wide discretion to set bail or remand, and eliminating the ‘least restrictive’ standard in existing statute erodes the purpose of bail and would only condemn more of our Black and Latinx clients to suffer pretrial incarceration at Rikers Island, a facility that has already claimed the lives of 36 New Yorkers since January 2021," reads a statement from The Legal Aid Society.