Two Adelaide prisoners who started a fire in their cell because they were unhappy about being moved to a higher-security division, may have tampered with a power point to spark the blaze, the Department for Correctional Services (DCS) says.
The fire on Sunday, resulted in five people being taken to hospital and the evacuation of up to 157 prisoners from the E division of Yatala Labour Prison.
DCS chief executive David Brown said the prisoners had been behaving badly and a transfer to the higher-security G division had been approved before the fire.
"It would appear the prisoners were unhappy with the arrangements, the regime they were on, but they weren't demonstrating the necessary behaviour to progress ... and from there their behaviour escalated to the point where they lit the fire in the cell," Mr Brown told ABC Radio Adelaide.
"The most high security site is G division, the maximum security unit, and arrangements had been made by the supervisor and OIC to move these two prisoners to G division.
"We still haven't confirmed [how the fire started] we suspect it may have been through tampering with a power point in the cell, because that is one way of getting a spark, but we are still waiting on advice from the investigating team as to [the] likely source of the fire."
Mr Brown said the two prisoners plus three staff members were taken to hospital on Sunday for assessment for smoke inhalation.
He said while the prisoners were still in hospital, the staff members had been released late Sunday.
While the prisoners could face internal charges under the Correction Services Act, Mr Brown said they could also face further charges through police, who were onsite yesterday to conduct their own investigations.
"I sincerely hope that they get charged because the act of lighting the cell fire is one of the most dangerous acts that a prisoner could take and put their lives at risk and put at risk the lives of the staff that are responding to rescue them," he said.
"I've got no doubt that the staff that intervened yesterday afternoon in all likelihood saved the lives of the two prisoners who had lit the fire in their cell."
PSA calls for staff review
Natasha Brown from the Public Service Association said the union had previously raised concerns about staffing levels across the state's prison system.
She said yesterday's event highlighted the need for proper resourcing.
"We are very proud of our members who were able to deal with what was obviously an incredibly difficult and dangerous situation yesterday and were able to get things back under control," she said.
"But this just highlights the fact that our members do a very difficult job every day, they do it very well, but they do put themselves in harm's way in order to keep our community safe and so they need to be resourced and supported as much as possible in order to protect their own safety and wellbeing."
She said appropriate staffing levels was "a critical aspect of that".
Ms Brown said the sector had faced a number of cuts over the past few years and the union had been calling on a review of staffing levels.
But DCS chief executive David Brown said no concerns had been raised with him about staffing levels on shift yesterday.
"I thought the staff handled the incident in accordance with their training and extremely well, and managed the evacuation of an entire division and the return of those prisoners to the division in a safe manner," he said.
"Additional DCS resources were called in to support them and I'm very proud of the way the staff responded to the incident."
