The Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre in London, Ont., remains under lockdown after a chaotic week of staff firings, work refusals and prisoner unrest.

A riot broke out at the EMDC Saturday night, when jail managers were attempting to control unruly inmates during the jail-wide lockdown. Cells were flooded, lights were broken and inmates in the female detention wing were banging on their doors and windows.

EMDC correctional officers say they're worried inmates have concealed shards of broken glass to use as weapons later.

"Our fear is now that those offenders now have weapons in their cells," Tammy Carson, the health and safety representative for correctional officers at the EMDC, told CTV London.

The chaos started last Wednesday, when five correctional officers and an EMDC manager were fired in connection with the Oct. 31, 2013 beating death of inmate Adam Kargus.

The ministry of correction services says the terminations were over the officers’ involvement -- or lack of involvement -- in what led to the inmate’s death.

Kargus was beaten to death in an EMDC shower last Halloween. One inmate was charged with second-degree murder and two others were charged with lesser offences.

Then in March, three jail staffers were also charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life in connection to the 29-year-old’s death. They were among those fired Wednesday.

Members of the correctional officers' union reacted to the firings with a series of work refusals, forcing a jail-wide lockdown that's been in place ever since.

The union representing correctional officers at the jail says overcrowding, understaffing and inmate violence have made conditions unsafe for employees working there.

"Health and safety is important for everybody," OPSEU local 108 president Dominic Bragaglia told CTV London.

Bragaglia said he asked EMDC managers earlier this week to call in a Crisis Intervention Team to bring the jail under control.

But he said EMDC management did not call the Crisis Intervention Team, saying they'd prefer to deal with the problem themselves. Instead, Bragaglia said they've asked for staffing help from managers at other jails across the province.

Off-duty correctional officers have also been called in to help the undermanned facility.

The Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services issued a statement to CTV London addressing the crisis late Saturday.

"The safety of our corrections staff and inmates is our top priority," the statement said. "Because of a work refusal by corrections staff, EMDC remains in lockdown to maintain safety and security."

Inmates will continue to receive meals and medical treatment while the Ministry addresses the situation, the statement said.

"The Ministry continues efforts to work with the union to fully restore operations and lift the current lockdown."

Six of Ontario's 29 jails had more than 200 cases of inmate-on-inmate violence last year, according to statistics obtained by The Canadian Press last April. London's EMDC was included among those six.

OPSEU president Warren Thomas condemned the firings in a statement on Wednesday.

He said the firings undermine the judicial system, as the individuals who were fired have not been found guilty in court.

"We find it gravely troubling that front-line officers are being held out as the scapegoats for a broken correctional system that the government fails to address," he said.

Thomas said correctional officers at the EMDC have been "sounding the alarm" about poor conditions for the last two years, without a response.

With a report by CTV Kitchener’s Nadia Matos