SANTIAGO, (Reuters) – Fire engulfed a prison in the Chilean capital early yesterday, killing 81 inmates and critically injuring 14 others, the government said, in the country’s third-deadliest blaze ever.
Officials said the fire was deliberately started during an early-morning brawl between inmates in one of the crowded prison’s five towers. Television footage showed part of the San Miguel prison in flames, billowing with black smoke, before the blaze was put out by firefighters.
Hundreds of frantic relatives of the inmates flooded to the prison gates, screaming their family members’ names and imploring police to tell them who had survived. Officials later began informing the families of those killed.
“It is a hugely painful tragedy,” President Sebastian Pinera said. “We cannot guarantee the number of dead will not rise.” A regional governor said the official estimate was 81, down slightly after clarifying a hospital report.
When officials read an initial list of confirmed survivors by megaphone, relatives responded with agonized wails, assuming that those not included were dead. Hundreds of grieving family members surged against barricades, raining rocks and glass bottles on police and officials.
“Desperation does this to people,” said Luz Mira, whose son is serving a five-year sentence in the prison. “Things are happening in this prison all the time. Imagine so many people stuffed in together.”
Justice Minister Felipe Bulnes said the prison housed 1,960 inmates, nearly twice the 1,100 inmate capacity.
“There were only five officers and one paramedic on guard inside the jail,” said Arturo Sandoval, president of a union of prison employees. “This tragedy was inevitable and another could happen tomorrow in any prison in this country given the overpopulation of more than 100 percent.”
State television reported that a recent audit of the San Miguel prison condemned overcrowded and understaffed conditions. A spokesman for firefighters said they were alerted to the fire by a cellphone call from within the jail.
“We cannot keep living with a prison system which is absolutely inhumane,” Pinera said. “We are going to speed up the process to ensure our country has a humane, dignified prison system that befits a civilized country.”
