A fire at a Western Maryland prison Tuesday evening sent one prisoner and several correctional officers to the hospital, causing the evacuation of an entire tier.

The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said in a statement that officers at Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland were “alerted to smoke coming from one of the tiers in the facility” and responded to a 43-year-old prisoner’s cell. That prisoner was airlifted Tuesday night by Maryland State Police to a nearby hospital “for treatment of his injuries.”

One correctional officer was transported by ambulance to a hospital for smoke inhalation and six other correctional officers went to the hospital “at the conclusion of their shifts seeking attention for minor injuries,” the statement said. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The fire was sparked one week after the correctional officers’ union held a press conference about an hour east at another prison complex, in Hagerstown, calling attention to low staffing levels they say are creating dangerous conditions at state prisons.

The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Patrick Moran, president of AFSCME Maryland, the union representing correctional officers, said the fire at Western Correctional was “directly related to the lack of resources, lack of staffing,” discussed at last week’s press conference.

Moran said the fire occurred the night shift, which is typically the lowest-staffed shift at state prisons because many incarcerated people are asleep during that time.

”When you have inadequate staffing and it’s a midnight shift, obviously, that’s going to be a lot less eyes on the ground as to what’s going on,” Moran said.

He added that low staffing makes officers less able to conduct “shakedowns” to search for contraband, such as a power strip, which he said was thought to be the cause of the fire on Tuesday.

”This is why this has got to be dealt with,” Moran said. “I mean, this is a maximum-security prison.”

The corrections department declined to discuss further details about the fire, citing the pending active investigations.