Unprotected prisoners are required to fight dangerous fires as, for example the August 1998 fire in hundreds of tons of coal in a pole barn on the prison. Even after the unprotected prisoners struggled to extinguish it, they had to return to the smoldering heap time after time. Wood and other combustible materials are widely used in construction and furnishings in many buildings. The prison administration tries to compensate and shift blame by taking the prisoners' papers and property. Gasoline and combustible materials are regularly carried through many buildings, as, for example, trains of lawnmowers being pushed through cellblocks.
Fire can pass from one side of a buidling or cellblock to the other side.
The cellblocks are multi-tiered structures without fire or smoke barriers between the stories. A fire in a cell on the ground tier would sweep and spread to upper cells. They do not meet minimum federal standards. They have very limited air and space in which to move. But, in most cases, the tiny cells are occupied by two prisoners.