Two inmates are fighting for life and two prison guards suffered burns after a fire broke out at a jail in the NSW Hunter region.
Police say the fire started in a cell at Cessnock Correctional Centre just after 8pm on Thursday.
The prisoners, aged 21 and 24, were airlifted to Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital where they remain in a critical condition.
Seven correctional officers were treated for smoke inhalation, including two of them who were treated for burns, police said.
It is the second blaze in a NSW jail this year, after inmates lit a fire in a cell at Wellington Correctional Centre, near Dubbo, in March.
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Corrective Services NSW will investigate the fire with Fire & Rescue NSW and the NSW Police.
All seven staff members have left hospital, with one officer having to return to outpatients on Friday, a Corrective Services NSW spokesman said in a statement.
