Carbon monoxide gas leaked into a West Virginia prison for days in August 2021, triggering alarms and, according to a federal lawsuit filed this month, poisoning people incarcerated in the facility.
Prison staff briefly released incarcerated individuals to the facility’s yard, but then brought them back to their respective cells, where they were exposed to high carbon monoxide levels for several days, said the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland by two legal firms, including Baltimore-based Murphy, Falcon & Murphy.
The suit’s plaintiffs — 86 federal prisoners incarcerated at FCI McDowell in Welch, West Virginia — began showing signs of carbon monoxide poisoning and made reports to prison guards about medical conditions ranging from headaches to vomiting to loss of consciousness.
