TORONTO

Small fires started by an inmate inside the Toronto South Detention Centre Wednesday sent five jail workers to hospital, the Toronto Sun has learned.

Staff members at the Etobicoke jail suffered minor injuries and are withholding all non-essential services at the jail until the Ministry of Labour investigated, OPSEU Local 5112 president Rodger Noakes said Thursday.

"We're very fortunate nobody died in this incident," Noakes said.

An inmate lit a fire in a lower-floor unit around 10 a.m., he said.

It was extinguished quickly but minutes later that same inmate lit another fire.

Over the course of four hours the inmate set five fires, Noakes said.

While each fire was quickly extinguished, the resulting smoke rose through the building, causing breathing problems for people on upper floors, he said.

After the first fire was set, guards asked to call in a crisis intervention team but were refused by managers, Noakes said.

Those officers would have taken the inmate from the unit and searched him to locate what he was using to light the fires.

"This guy just continued on for the whole day and as a result the building filled full of smoke to such a degree we had to call ambulances," Noakes said. "People were having some serious problems breathing because of the thickness of the smoke. We just can't get up and leave. We're locked inside in bubbles inside the units with these folks. It's not like you can run out of the building like you would during a normal fire."

Noakes also alleges that automated alarms at the

jail that would have alerted Toronto Fire Services were shut down after each fire and the building's ventilation system was not used to clear the smoke.

Workers were forced to call paramedics and the fire department themselves, he said.

Toronto Paramedic Services spokesman Kim McKinnon confirmed five people were taken to hospital suffering from smoke-inhalation.

Correctional Services Ministry spokesman Brent Ross called it a "minor fire incident" in the jail's special handling unit.

Staff removed inmates and were able to extinguish the blaze and clear the area, which will remain vacant while an investigation is conducted, he said.

The ministry will review what happened to ensure procedures were followed and determine whether or not they were effective," Ross said in an e-mail.