20 Hurt When Inmate Sets Fire at NYC’s Rikers Island Jail

20 Hurt When Inmate Sets Fire at NYC’s Rikers Island Jail
Rikers Island, home to the main jail complex, is situated in the East River between the Queens and Bronx boroughs in New York on Oct. 19, 2021. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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NEW YORK—A fire set by an inmate at New York City’s troubled Rikers Island injured 20 people on a day that lawmakers visited the jail complex, authorities said.

Fifteen staff members and five inmates were injured in the fire that started at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday, the city Correction Department said. The New York City Fire Department extinguished the blaze within an hour, a department spokesperson said.