More than 350 perish in ‘worst’ prison blaze
Tegucigalpa – Distraught relatives stormed the charred shell of an overcrowded jail in Honduras yesterday where up to 359 inmates died in one of Latin America’s worst prison fires.
Police fired shots into the air and teargas rose from the smouldering wreckage of the Comayagua prison after hundreds of people threw stones at police and stormed through the gates to try to determine the fate of their relatives, many of whom died screaming for help while trapped in their cells.
Other family members wailed in fear and grief outside, amid confusion over the identities of those killed. ‘‘This is desperate, they won’t tell us anything and I think my husband is dead,’’ Gregoria Zelaya said.
Pompeyo Bonilla, the Honduran security minister, said that almost half of the prison population could have perished. Dozens of injured survivors were taken to medical facilities around the city, rescuers carrying semi-conscious prisoners by their arms and legs. Some cells were packed with 60 or more inmates, witnesses said.
Firefighters said that at first they were prevented from entering the building because of gunshots.
Danilo Orellana, the prisons director, said most of the victims were believed to have died from asphyxiation after the fire started about 10.50pm local time on Wednesday. The authorities are investigating reports that a prisoner set fire to his mattress.
‘‘Some of his cellmates said that he screamed: ‘We will all die here!’,’’ Orellana said. Another line of inquiry was that the blaze started after a short-circuit in electrical wiring, officials said.
Jose Garcia, the Comayagua fire department spokesman, saw ‘‘horrific’’ scenes while fighting the flames and said that inmates ran riot.
‘‘Some 100 prisoners were burnt to death or suffocated in their cells,’’ he said. ‘‘We didn’t have the keys and couldn’t find the guards who had them.’’
Some inmates said that they pushed through the roof to escape.
‘‘We screamed for the those who had the keys – instead they fired shots at us,’’ Ruben Garcia said.
The prison is believed to have housed 850 people, double its capacity. Officials said 457 inmates survived. About 80 are missing and could be on the run.
Honduras is a major transit route for drugs and has the highest murder rate in the world.
Jose Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director of Human Rights Watch, said: ‘‘To bring down the staggering crime rate, the authorities have been packing both real and suspected criminals into overcrowded prisons.’’