The cells at Police Headquarters at the foot of Market St. Courtesy San Diego Police Museum.

It was terrible. The screams of the dying and injured were ghastly. The heat was terrific. Flames leaped 20 feet high through the ventilators. –Battalion Chief Ed McLarney, San Diego Fire Department.

On February 4, 1942, an accident in the “drunk tank” of the City jail led to tragedy. The story of the Jail Fire of 1942.