Two guards were stabbed Wednesday afternoon at the Lompoc maximum-security penitentiary near Vandenberg Air Force Base. The guards’ conditions and identities, as well as the circumstances under which they were injured, were not released by prison officials.

The City of Lompoc Police Dept., the Santa Barbara County Fire Dept. and a fire engine from Vandenberg Air Force Base responded to a call regarding an unknown medical emergency at 5:12 p.m.

Fire department spokesman Capt. Charlie Johnson said when county firefighters arrived, both male guards had been brought out of the prison facility on stretchers. They were transported to Lompoc District Hospital via ambulance.

In 1997, a Lompoc inmate killed Senior Officer Specialist Scott Williams, 29, and injured four other guards with an improvised knife.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Lompoc facility was housing 1,438 inmates as of Oct. 16, 2003.