"On 6 December, a fire broke out in one of the premises of penal colony No. 4 in the Novgorod Region. When putting out the fire, the body of a man born in 1994 was found in one of the cells. Four more prisoners were hospitalised", the committee said in a statement.
A source in the emergency services told Sputnik that the incident occurred in a solitary cell of a one-storey brick building.
"The area of the fire was 9 square metres [3.4 square miles]", the source said.
Investigators are examining the scene to establish the circumstances of the incident.