Riot police and prison officers in body armour have regained control of a West Sussex prison that suffered extensive damage during a new year riot.

Firefighters were also sent to HMP Ford, an open prison near Arundel, after 40 inmates started fires and smashed windows and furniture at around midnight.

Officers were forced to abandon the prison as the inmates went on the rampage. Two fire engines and 140 extra prison staff were sent to the jail compound after flames spread from one block to another.

The Prison Officers Association said all of the rioters had now been detained, with six having been identified as the ringleaders. The union's deputy general secretary, Mark Freeman, said three of these were being held and transferred to another jail.

The blaze destroyed six accommodation blocks, a snooker room, a pool room, a gym block and a mail room, he said. The damage meant that about 160 inmates would have to be transferred to other prisons.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said there had been no reports of injuries to prisoners or staff.

Freeman said only two prison officers and four support staff were on duty when the violence broke out just before midnight on New Year's Eve after some prisoners refused to be breathalysed for alcohol.

A "large amount" of alcohol had been found in the prison, and officers had been chasing inmates around for a couple of days "like a scene out of Benny Hill" attempting to get them to take breath tests, he said.

This reached a flashpoint overnight. "In the early hours staff tried to breathalyse a number of prisoners because they suspected they had been drinking, which I think we can say with some certainty, because of the amount of alcohol found over recent days and weeks. A total of 40 bottles of alcohol have been found empty," Freeman said.

"It's been a concern here for a long time about the amount of alcohol prisoners are able to get.

"When the prisoners refused to be breathalysed, they became violent along with other prisoners and went on what we call a mutiny. This is a prison mutiny. This has been a long time waiting to happen."

The prison has previously been criticised by inspectors for being "awash with alcohol".

It is thought that inmates from the prison's B wing took the lead in the riot.

Freeman said: "The ringleaders have now been identified. There are six of them – three of them are in a van waiting to be taken away and the other three are hiding among the other prisoners, trying to avoid detention.

"There will be an inquiry to establish who the others were that were involved and how they will be dealt with."

At around midnight, rioters wearing homemade balaclavas to hide their identities began smashing windows and activating fire alarms.

Five blocks were ablaze overnight and another three were set alight at about midday.

A Prison Service spokesman said: "The fire brigade has been into the prison and the fires have been contained." He said the cause of the incident was not yet known and would be investigated.

But Freeman claimed insufficient staffing levels were partly to blame. "It's very difficult when you have a very small staff, which they did last night. In our view they do not have enough staff. The general policy is that prisons in an open state have less staff, but we feel they should have more because they have more access to illegal activities. This is what happens when you have the mix of easily available alcohol and the wrong type of prisoner."

The prison specialises in housing non-violent offenders with a low risk of absconding who are nearing the end of their sentences.

Prison watchdogs have criticised Ford for its lax security in recent years.

A report by the prison's own independent monitoring board in March 2009 found that an outdated CCTV security system and a staffing shortage were contributing to burglars breaking into the jail to steal equipment from workshops. It also found that drugs, alcohol and mobile phones were being smuggled into the prison for inmates.

Two months later, a report by the chief inspector of prisons found that inmates were leaving the site at night to buy alcohol. Inspectors described the prison as being "awash with alcohol". The report said the prison was underperforming in preparing inmates for resettlement on release.

In 2006 the Home Office revealed that 70 inmates, including three murderers serving the last three years of their sentences, had absconded from the site.

The institution, which can hold up to 557 inmates, does not house criminals who have been convicted of arson, some sexual offences, or restraining offences, according to the Prison Service website.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, called for a review of the prison to determine how and why the riot broke out.

"Events of this kind are very rare in open prisons, which serve an important purpose to rehabilitate people who have served ever-lengthening sentences," she said.