The Ohio State Penitentiary Fire of 1930
Updated February 23, 2017 | Factmonster Staff 
The Question:
Can you identify and give any details of a prison fire that occurred in early 1930, before May, that took several lives? It was a disaster of such proportion that it made the news in Europe as well as in the USA.
The Answer:
According to our sources, there was a fire on April 21, 1930 at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio that killed 320 convicts - this sounds like the event you're looking for.
For more information on this incident and similar ones, check out the Great Disasters (we know it sounds like an oxymoron) section of our almanac. Or you can go straight to our list of major Fires and Explosions.
-The Fact Monster
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