Update: Fulton County Jail using public school kitchen to prepare meals

Fulton County Jail staff will use a local elementary school kitchen to prepare meals for detainees as repairs continue on the jail’s kitchen following a carbon monoxide leak.

The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said it has partnered with Atlanta Public Schools to use the local school’s kitchen for the foreseeable future, according to a news release.

The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office reported that the gas was turned back on in the jail kitchen. The kettles that were emitting high levels of carbon monoxide still need to be tested, which they hoped would happen Thursday.

The exhaust fans above the kettles aren’t working. Parts need to fix them are being sourced but they do not know when they will arrive, according to the news release from the sheriff’s office.

Contractors also are working on the facility’s air conditioning.

Wednesday, July 17

Carbon monoxide levels are going down after a gas leak at the Fulton County Jail after a second day of high levels in the kitchen that brought the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department and EMS to the scene on Rice Street.

Alarms on carbon monoxide (CO) monitors that were installed Tuesday night sounded around 8 a.m. today, according to a Fulton County Sheriff’s Office news release. Kitchen staff also began experiencing symptoms related to CO exposure. Fifteen kitchen workers were evaluated and two took themselves to the hospital.

A second kettle was found as the cause of the high CO levels today. Natural gas also was leaking from the supply line to a stovetop, the release said. The regular to the gas line leading to the building was found to be faulty. Atlanta Gas Light was onsite to determine if the regulator will be repaired or replaced.

“For the second day in a row, AFRD and EMS have been called and the Fulton County Jail has had to cease kitchen operations due to problems related to the gas line,” Sheriff Pat Labat said, according to the release.

Cold meals will be served to the residents until further notice with the gas off. A food vendor will be used to serve staff meals.

The air conditioning has been out since April and temperatures have reached the 90s in the jail, Labat said.

Tuesday, July 16

The kitchen at the Fulton County Jail was shut down by the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department on Tuesday due to a carbon monoxide leak that put one employee in the hospital.

Employees started exhibiting nausea and other symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, triggering an immediate evacuation of the kitchen, Sheriff Pat Labat said in a news release.

A contract employee who drove herself to the hospital was admitted according to the release. All other kitchen workers, including contractors, trustees, and employees, were okay.

Labat said a private contractor confirmed a high level of carbon monoxide in the kitchen. It appears the leak did not affect other areas of the jail.

The source of the leak has been traced to one of eight kettles in the kitchen. Six of the eight kettles were down as of 1:30 p.m. today. The kitchen needs at least four working kettles to prepare close to 8,000 meals daily, according to the release. That number sometimes rises to as many as 11,000 meals, depending on the population.

Some food had been prepared ahead of time in the event of emergencies. The Sheriff’s Office did not know when the kitchen will be operational.

“This leak is yet another example of the challenges caused by an aging, underfunded jail with infrastructure problems that have led to other resident health issues and stabbings with weapons fashioned from parts of the building,” Labat’s release said.

The sheriff protested the recent decision by the Fulton County Commission to assess renovating the existing jail facilities and not replacing them with a new building.

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