BURGIN, Ky. — Rioting inmates started several fires at a central Kentucky prison, and damage to several buildings was so extensive that officials have to bus some of the facility's 1,200 prisoners elsewhere Saturday morning.

State police Lt. David Jude said Saturday that firefighters had extinguished the blazes set Friday night at the medium-security Northpoint Training Center in a rural area 30 miles south of Lexington.

Buses started to move the first prisoners shortly after 6 a.m., but it wasn't immediately known where they were going and whether all the inmates would have to be moved.

Jude said the prisoners housed at Northpoint were still being kept early Saturday in an outdoor courtyard surrounded by prison guards and with police forming a perimeter around the outside of the facility to make sure none escaped.

"Everything seems to be at a calm," Jude said. "They're sitting down, kind of going with the program right now."

Portable toilets were brought in, and Jude said he believed much of the food supply was lost. The kitchen and canteen were among the buildings set ablaze, along with a medical center, general purpose building and some damage to the living quarters.

"There are several buildings there at the front that are going to be a total loss," Jude said.