Three Wright County inmates are charged with first-degree arson after allegedly lighting a mattress on fire Monday night in the Texas County Jail.
Cody J. Stafford, 29, and Tearance M. Connors, 32, both of Ava, and David L. Cook, 35, of Mountain Grove, face the class-B felony charge for their roles in the incident in wing 4 at the jail.
Texas County Jail administrator Pam Tripp said the men apparently used lighters to start the fire. The trio of suspects are believed to have dragged a mattress out of a cell and into a toilet cove before torching it.
All three were part of the group of 29 inmates transferred last week from Wright County after a similar fire incident there.
Thick, black smoke from the burning mattress charred walls and ceiling covering in the wing. Inmates in the wing were moved to the jail recreation area.
“You couldn’t see a thing in there while we were getting them out,” Tripp said.
The wing 4 inmates are still held in the recreation area, Tripp said, because the wing is unfit for occupancy due to the walls and ceiling being covered with material that could be hazardous to inhale. To help let smoke escape, firefighters cut out one of three large specialized skylights in the ceiling.
“They’re not like the average kind you buy at Lowe’s and put in your house,” Tripp said. “They have to be disaster-proof.”
Tripp, an administrator at the jail since the Texas County Justice Center opened and who worked a few years at the previous location, said the ceiling sprinklers were not activated by the smoky blaze.
“They go off from temperature,” Tripp said. “They don’t go off from smoke.”
All three suspects have a bond set at $400,000 for the arson charge. Stafford and Connors are still held in Texas County. Cook was transferred to another undisclosed location.