Prisoners start fire at youth centre

Authorities say young prisoners started a fire in an overcrowded cell at the Manitoba Youth Centre in Winnipeg on Monday morning.

Emergency crews were called to the centre at 1:50 a.m. after four youths barricaded themselves inside their unit, started banging and yelling, and then started a fire, police said. Two 17-year-olds, a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old were involved.

The flames were quickly extinguished by the Winnipeg Fire Department after police and members of the emergency response unit  for Manitoba Corrections quelled the disturbance.

"They set fire to papers and linens in one of the rooms and our crews stood by until the police mitigated the circumstances so it was safe for our crews to go in," said district fire Chief Peter Peterson.

The youths were armed with some type of weapons, according to Peterson, who had no further details.

"That's why we waited for police to go in and clear the scene for us," he said.

No one was hurt, police said. Darryl Rumsey, superintendent of the youth centre, said officials are not sure how the fire started.

"We don't have enough information at this point to determine what they may have used to cause that. That would be something that we would be pursuing over the next little while," he said.

The four inmates were housed in a room designed for one person, but Rumsey does not know if that's reason they started the uproar.

Overstuffed facility

The official capacity of the MYC is for 150 inmates. On Sunday, the facility housed 203.

It's because of this that Monday morning's mayhem didn't surprise the head of the union representing provincial correctional officers.

"You take people in real life, cram them together and tensions rise," said Ken Crawford.

He said his union has been advocating for changes at the MYC for about three years, but nothing's been done. "We need facilities and increased capacities to deal with those population counts," Crawford said.

The province announced a 48-cell expansion of the Aggasiz Youth Centre in Portage la Prairie in July.

The upgrades will take about a year, but Crawford said he'd like to see the project fast-tracked.

Fire officials estimated that Monday's fire caused about $52,000 damage: $2,000 to the structure and $50,000 to contents.

The correctional centre is at 170 Doncaster St. in Winnipeg's Old Tuxedo neighbourhood.