OICS review of a serious fire at the AMC on 12 May 2021

8 Apr 2022

A critical incident occurred in May 2021 in a double storey high security-rated cell block when several detainees were allegedly drunk on ‘home brew’ becoming heightened over an afternoon. Some of these detainees started acting aggressively towards Corrections Officers, and fires were lit in the unit causing thick smoke and damage. Officers withdrew from the unit, and AMC staff fought the fires from outside the unit. For the first time in AMC’s history, OC (“pepper”) spray was on detainees who were attempting to hinder firefighting efforts.

“Fortunately, there were no significant injuries to staff or detainees and staff did a good job in dealing with multiple fires in the unit” Mr McAllister said, “although the incident had a significant impact, including in terms of the estimated repair bill of over $3.7 million, and the operational impact of forcing a large unit offline for almost a year in an already crowded jail”.

The Critical Incident Review found that almost all detainees were in their unit during the day in question and noted that in other jails detainees would be engaged across the jail in work, industries, education, programs, recreation, and other activities. “Lack of a so-called ‘structured day’ for this unit was undoubtedly a contributing factor to the unrest” Mr McAllister said, “because when detainees are bored and locked in units on daily basis they turn their minds to ways to break the monotony”. T

The Review noted some improvements in AMC’s management of an incident of this kind particularly through improved senior command structures, however, many of the lessons identified from a riot in November 2020 (and related OICS recommendations from a review of that incident) were yet to be fully implemented. This includes staff access to appropriate tactical personal protective equipment, and staff training in incident control.

Read the full report here