The Albany Fire Department was called to the scene of a fire at the Clinton County Jail at about 4:30 Tuesday morning

Albany Fire Chief Robert Roeper said there was no structural damage to the building, but the cause of the fire was still yet unknown.

“Some people are calling it the storage room and some is calling it the uniform room,” Roeper said. “The sprinkler head did activate and knocked the fire down. There was a lot of smoke, but very little structural damage. I do have Alex Wesley (KSP Fire Investigator) to help me determine the cause of the fire.”

The fire occurred in the north west corner of the jail and, according to Roeper, there was nothing plugged in around where the fire started. Roeper said he couldn’t speculate on how it began.

“I can’t find any causes for the fire,” Roeper said. “I ruled out several things.”

During the fire, all inmates were evacuated without injury and as of 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, all the female inmates had already been transported to another facility and the male inmates were in the process of being transported.

“They are moving all of them and finding places for them,” Roeper said. “We are trying to watch videos right now to see where everybody was at the time.”

Roeper said two jail deputies were on duty at the time of the fire. He added there had been three in the building earlier with a shift change around 12:30 a.m. to 1 a.m.

“One was a trainee and the other two were regular deputies,” Roeper said.

Roeper said the basement of the jail was completely flooded, a combination of water having run down the stairs and floor drains in the basement not working properly.

“We tried to get as much water out of here as possible,” Roeper said. “Water had come all the way out the front door.”