The Fire That Killed 322 Men Locked in Their Cells

On the evening of 21 April 1930 at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus, a candle set by three prisoners planning an escape ignited oily rags on the roof of the West Block while 800 men were already locked in their cells for the night, and as the fire tore through the six-story building the men inside screamed and begged the guards to open the doors, and some guards heard them and did nothing, and one guard was overcome by smoke before he could reach the locks, and the roof collapsed onto the upper cells, and 160 men burned to death where they were chained, and by the time it was over 322 prisoners were dead in a building designed to hold 1,500 that was holding 4,300, and two of the only survivors that night were inmates who had overpowered a guard, stolen his keys, and ran back into the fire.

Interesting Fact: The three men believed to have started the fire timed it to ignite while prisoners were still in the dining hall — giving them cover to escape in the chaos. The candle burned slower than they planned. By the time the fire erupted, the men were already locked back in their cells for the night. Two of the alleged conspirators died by suicide in the months after the fire. The prison had been built for 1,500 men. On the night of the fire it held 4,300. No sprinklers. No emergency protocols. No centralised unlocking system. It remains the deadliest prison fire in American history.

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