By Kaitlyn Alanis
The Wichita Eagle
EL DORADO, Kan. — A group of prisoners who started fires inside the El Dorado prison surrendered Sunday evening after a several hour standoff with law enforcement, prison officials said.
A prison official said about 100 prisoners were involved in the uprising. He did not say how many fires were started inside the prison, located about 40 minutes northeast of Wichita.
The fires were started at noon and extinguished by early evening. The Kansas Department of Corrections is examining the damage, said Kansas Department of Corrections spokesman Samir Arif.
No one was injured in what a dispatch supervisor called a “possible uprising.”
Arif said the prisoners “began to surrender to security staff” after about four and a half hours.
The prisoners refused to leave the yard and started multiple fires inside the prison, Arif said.
Smoke could be seen coming from the prison until about 4 p.m. Prison officials did not say what was burned.
Arif said all staff and prisoners were accounted for by 8 p.m.
Local law enforcement helped secure the facility, and several armored vehicles entered and exited the prison while a reporter from The Eagle stood watch. Media were restricted to a staging area across the highway from the prison.
The community was in no danger, according to the news release.
The El Dorado prison “houses the most dangerous and recalcitrant inmates,” according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
The Department of Corrections is investigating the incident, Arif said.
©2018 The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.)