El Cajon
A power failure and small trash fire Thursday at County Jail in El Cajon prompted San Diego County deputies to return all inmates to their cells and prepare evacuation plans.
The lockdown followed the 9 p.m. power failure, said Sgt. Beverly Creighton, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department.
She said the outage lasted just over an hour. During the lockdown, some inmates complained of difficulty breathing because of smoke from the fire, which had been set by inmates.
Fire departments from El Cajon, San Diego, La Mesa, Bostonia, San Miguel and Santee responded to the fire, Creighton said.
During the outage and fire, El Cajon police and sheriff’s deputies surrounded the jail, using police dogs and helicopters for surveillance. Evacuation plans had been set but were not necessary, Creighton said.
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