GRAFTON, Ohio — Incident reports released by the state prison system on Wednesday revealed that at least two inmates had to be resuscitated with CPR, and nurses found victims burned and bleeding following a lightning strike at the Grafton Reintegration Center Tuesday night.
In all, Grafton’s fire chief said 19 people were injured, including 16 who were taken to hospitals for treatment.
RELATED: 7 remain hospitalized after lightning strike at Lorain County prison
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said all of the injured were inmates at the prison.
Video released by ODRC showed a flash of lightning appearing to strike the prison’s yard.
The video does not show anyone being struck, but a series of incident reports detail the severity of the situation.
In one report, a correctional program specialist wrote that he saw a flash of light come through his office window and then looked outside and saw several victims lying on the ground in the yard.
He wrote that he began triaging victims and found two people unconscious.
He said both then stopped breathing, had no pulses and had to be resuscitated.
A prison nurse wrote that he had to “removed the burnt shirt” from one victim to render aid.
Another nurse noted one of the victims had “burns to his chest and legs,” and that another victim "stated he was still shaking from the voltage, also stating he couldn’t hear out of one of his ears.”
That nurse also said inmates said one of the victims who was struck by lightning was “smoking.”
Wednesday evening, a prison spokesperson said four inmates remained hospitalized in stable condition.
Speaking earlier in the day in Columbus, Governor Mike DeWine said one of the victims was being treated in Cleveland, and two others in Columbus.
ODRC said the victims left a dining area and were walking outside to housing units when the lightning struck.
"There was really no indication that there would be lightning,” said DeWine. “Guards report no indication. Normal protocol is if there are storms going on, they clear the yard. No one is outside. But they did not do that because they did not have that indication.”
But the reports raise questions about that claim.
A prison lieutenant wrote that he closed the yard at 4:58 p.m. during dinner due to lightning.
He wrote that at 5:18 p.m., “the rain slowed down and was clear for offenders to go back to the units.”
But he wrote that minutes later, “at or about 17:20pm, it started lightning again and I called for the yard to be closed and to lock in place. I was yelling at the offenders that had not made it far from cover to return to the dining facility,” he wrote. “Some offenders continued to go to their units and some returned to the Inmate Service area. I was informed that an offender was down.I went to the incident to learn that three offenders had been struck by lightning and were unresponsive.”
A prison spokesperson said a review of the incident is currently underway.
