An arson fire at the Warren County Jail Monday evening caused a cell block to be evacuated, and 18 inmates were shipped out of the county for housing, Sheriff Martin Pace said this morning.

“Right now, they’d have to stand up in a drunk tank or be sent to another county,” Pace said of anyone who might be arrested today. “We have no room.”

At 7:30 p.m. Monday, jail officers noticed smoke in a cell block on the third floor of the jail and moved 19 inmates to a safe area while firefighters extinguished the blaze, Pace said.

“It appeared what they had set on fire was a couple of bedsheets and some writing paper,” Pace said.

One inmate, whom Pace declined to identify, was treated for smoke inhalation and released from River Region Medical Center, and the other 18 in the block were taken to the Rankin County Jail in Brandon, he said. That is about 50 miles from Vicksburg.

The cell block where the fire occurred, in the newer part of the jail at Cherry and Grove streets, was closed this morning and added to the jail’s persistent overcrowding problems, Pace said.

“This morning it’s being processed as a crime scene because of the potential arson charge,” Pace said.

Pace said the blaze was sparked by matches or a lighter believed to have been smuggled in during visitation. The jail has no visitation area, so the public is allowed inside cell blocks three times a week for visitation, Pace said.

“Contraband is a never-ending battle with us because of the visitation issues,” he said.

Once the arson investigation is complete, the cell block where the fire occurred will be cleaned and used again to house inmates, Pace said.

The Warren County Jail has 128 beds but 141 inmates were in the jail at the time of the fire, Pace said. All but 25 of those inmates are awaiting trial, Pace said. An additional 12 Warren County inmates were held in the Issaquena County Jail this morning.

Pace said he was making arrangements with other county jails across the state to take inmates. One possibility is in Brookhaven in Lincoln County, about 76 miles from Vicksburg.

Pace predicted the overcrowding could get worse.

The Warren County grand jury meets at the end of this month, and any criminal indictments could swell the jail population even further.

“If we have to transport to the far ends of the state, if somebody needs to go to jail they are going to go to jail. It may not just be our jail,” he said.

A price for housing the inmates in Brandon had not been set this morning because they were moved in an emergency transfer, but the statewide rate for housing out-of-county inmates is $30 per inmate per day, Pace said.

The Warren County Jail was built in 1906 and renovated in the 1970s. City prisoners often are jailed at the Issaquena County Correctional Facility, increasing costs for housing and transportation.

The grand jury, which meets in January, May, July and October, will tour the jail and other county facilities at the end of the month and make recommendations. In the past four years, a new Warren County Jail has been at the top of the grand jury report 15 times.