Nearly 300 killed in Honduras prison fire

[SarasotaRepub]

From Elvin Sandoval, for CNN
updated 8:00 AM EST, Wed February 15, 2012


Tegucigalpa, Honduras (CNN) -- At least 272 people were killed in a fire at a prison in central Honduras, a local fire department said Wednesday.

The blaze was under control, but the exact number of fatalities remained unknown, said Jose Turcios, spokesman for the Comayagua, Honduras, fire department.

Some 35 prisoners were transported to a local hospital, he said, and some were then taken to a hospital in the capital.

Five of the prison's units -- more than half of the prison -- were affected by the fire, Turcios said. The prison holds 851 prisoners.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation, he said.


LINKY

[MrsSmith]

Report: Most Honduras fire inmates awaited trial

COMAYAGUA, Honduras (AP) — The prisoners whose scorched bodies were carried out piece by piece Thursday morning from a charred Honduran prison had been locked inside an overcrowded penitentiary where most inmates had never been charged, let alone convicted, according to an internal Honduran government report obtained by The Associated Press.
More than half of the 856 inmates of the Comayagua farm prison north of the Central American country's capital were either awaiting trial or being held as suspected gang members, according to a report sent by the Honduran government this month to the United Nations.

...

National prison system director Danilo Orellana declined to comment on the supervision or the crowded conditions in Comayagua, a prison farm where inmates grew corn and beans.

...

crews said they rushed to the prison, arriving two minutes after a call for help because the firehouse was nearby. But the handful of guards held them out for a catastrophic 30 minutes, saying they thought the screams inside were a prison break and a riot. When rescuers finally were allowed in, they said they couldn't find keys or guards to unlock the barracks.

http://news.yahoo.com/report-most-ho...070428930.html

Locked up, doing slave labor on a government owned farm, not convicted of any crime...