The Northern Territory government has not ruled out rehousing inmates from the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre at a maximum security adult prison or moving them interstate.
The facility has been declared a crime scene and closed indefinitely after inmates got out of their cells and a fire started on Tuesday night.
Worried relatives watched on as firefighters extinguished the flames and armed police arrived to recapture the teenagers.
All 24 male juvenile detainees were moved to the police watch house in Darwin plus one more who arrived on Wednesday. The sole female inmate was moved into "a separate facility".
Schoolwork has been delivered to the children and plans are in place to allow them to exercise.
However, NT Families Minister Dale Wakefield said it was unclear when the inmates would return to the youth detention centre.
“We will look at a range of options,” she said.
“I don't want to speculate on what those are until we understand the length of time that we are looking at Don Dale will not be available. However, we will be moving kids back into that Don Dale facility as soon as possible.”
The facility, which has been described as “unfit for purpose” is a former adult prison.
Ken Davies, the CEO of Territory Families, told reporters that it was “an old facility” that uses an outdated key system to open doors and cells.
“We have had issues and incidents inside the facility, some of them have involved young people getting on the roof, some have been involved in incidents in some blocks,” he said.
“At all times we have been able to contain as incidents and it hasn't ended up in the situation we ended up with the other night.”
