The deputy warden was at home on his acreage 9 miles south of the Tecumseh state prison when his phone lit up with a text.

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Inmates at Nebraska’s third-largest prison had set fires in their cells.

Scott Busboom called the prison. No answer. He dialed the top warden. No answer.

He got into his white Ford pickup and drove to the prison where he’d spent most of his 35-year career with Nebraska’s Department of Correctional Services.

Smoke had been filtering from around Jesse Spencer’s cell door — cell B6 — into the hallway for more than 15 minutes before Busboom arrived.

The strobe and rhythmic blaring of a fire alarm filled the otherwise deserted hall.

Already, prison guards had made a cascading series of mistakes, including briefly cutting off power to the housing unit before abandoning it.

More missteps would follow over the next three hours as corrections officers — uncertain about who was in charge, partially paralyzed by fear and surrounded by chaos — waited to enter Spencer’s smoky cell.

Spencer wouldn’t survive the night.

Busboom wouldn’t survive its aftermath.

The smoke from cell B6: Chaos, death and blame in a Nebraska prison

An investigation by the Flatwater Free Press and Lincoln Journal Star

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