A fire inside the Cook County Jail sent 10 correctional deputies and a detainee to hospitals Sunday, bringing fresh attention to the sprawling Southwest Side facility at the same time county officials are debating whether the jail needs additional independent review.
The fire started around 3 p.m. Sept. 20 inside a cell on Tier 5A of the jails Residential Treatment Unit, according to the Cook County Sheriffs Office. Officials said a detainee apparently set a mattress on fire inside his cell before correctional deputies responded and quickly extinguished the flames.
Heavy smoke prompted officials to evacuate people from the fifth floor while Chicago firefighters responded. Ten correctional deputies and the detainee were taken to hospitals for smoke inhalation, and all were later released. The detainee was cleared to return to the jail.
The fire is being investigated separately from a growing debate over conditions and oversight at the Cook County Jail. On Tuesday, the Cook County Boards Health and Hospitals Committee deferred a resolution calling for an independent review of the facility rather than advancing the proposal.
Commissioner Tara Stamps introduced the resolution with Commissioners Bill Lowry, Alma Anaya, Josina Morita and Jessica Vásquez. The proposal calls for an outside examination of jail operations, including health care, safety, supervision and other conditions affecting people in custody.
Concerns over deaths at the jail have fueled the push. Eighteen people died while detained at the facility in 2023, the highest number in decades, according to previous reporting examining deaths, drug overdoses and medical response inside the jail.
A more recent Illinois Answers Project analysis found that at least 85 people died while in the custody of the Cook County sheriff between 2019 and 2025. That represents more than one-third of jail-related deaths statewide during that period, according to the investigation.
The Sheriffs Office has pointed to changes made since the spike in deaths, including additional searches, drug testing, mail scanners designed to detect drug-soaked paper and increased screening of incoming materials. Deaths have declined since 2023, and the office has said many deaths in recent years resulted from natural medical causes or drugs.
Cook County Jail has been subject to outside oversight before. Federal monitoring followed longstanding concerns over crowding, staffing, health care, safety and other conditions before a federal judge ended the most recent consent decree in 2017 after determining required reforms had been implemented.
Sundays fire does not establish a connection to the deaths or other incidents that prompted the current oversight proposal. Its timing, however, puts another safety incident before county officials as they consider whether existing oversight is sufficient for a jail that held an average of roughly 6,000 people as of February.
With the resolution deferred, commissioners have not yet decided whether an independent review will move forward. The debate leaves Cook County confronting a familiar question: how to measure safety and accountability inside a facility responsible for thousands of people in custody each day.