17 dead after prison protest fire

(From left) Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan; Officer in Charge of the Georgetown Prison, Superintendent Kevin Pilgrim; Director of Prisons Carl Graham and Deputy Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels at the emergency press conference yesterday. (Zoisa Fraser photo)

Seventeen prisoners died and five others were injured after a fire was started during a protest at the Georgetown Prison yesterday morning, prompting the Public Security Minister to declare “a crisis” at the facility as government announced that an inquiry would be set up.

The fire was started by inmates housed in the Capital Offences section of the prison during renewed unrest, which occurred just before 11am. At the time, members of the Joint Services were seeking to get the prisoners out in wake of a protest on the night before, when several fires had been lit.

It is believed that the men either burned to death or died due to