Two officers with the Department of Correction’s Emergency Service Unit were badly slashed by a notoriously violent detainee late Wednesday on Rikers Island, city and union officials said.

The eruption of violence began just after 4 p.m., when a man held in the North Infirmary Command started a fire in his cell. Heavy smoke poured into the jail. As uniformed staff cleared the area of detainees, the two officers were attacked, officials said.

Though the Correction Department did not identify the man responsible for the assault, the union that represents Correction officers attributed the attack to Sundance Oliver, 31, who the union said has assaulted 50 civilian and uniformed staff in two years.

Oliver, the union said, used a ceramic scalpel to slash the two officers while they were

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