Report: Most Honduras fire inmates were awaiting 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, Tegucigalpa, 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.

A fire started by an inmate tore through the prison Tuesday night, burning and suffocating screaming men in their locked cells as rescuers desperately searched for keys. Officials confirmed 358 dead, making it the world’s deadliest prison fire in a century.

Survivors told horrific tales of climbing walls to break the sheet metal roofing and escape, only to see prisoners in other cellblocks being burned alive. Inmates were found stuck to the roofing, their bodies fused to the metal.

From the time firefighters received a call at 10:59 p.m. local time (11:59 p.m. EST), the rescue was marred by human error and conditions that made the prison ripe for catastrophe.

According to the report, obtained exclusively by the AP, on any given day about 800 inmates were in a facility built for 500. There were only 51 guards by day and just 12 at night — the case at the time of the fire.

The prison had no medical or mental-health care, and the budget allowed less than $1 per day per prisoner for food. Prisoners only needed to bear a simple tattoo to be incarcerated under the strict Honduran anti-gang laws, the report said. The United Nations condemns the practice as a violation of international law.

Danilo Orellana, director of the national prison system, declined to comment on the supervision or the crowded conditions in Comayagua, a prison farm where inmates grew corn and beans. He referred an AP reporter to the commander of the prison police, who said comment would have to come from his public affairs office, which did not respond to an AP request late Wednesday.

President Porfirio Lobo on Wednesday suspended Mr. Orellana and other top prison officials.

Inside the prison, charred walls and debris showed the path of the fire, which burned through six barracks that had been crammed with 70 to 105 inmates each in four-level bunk beds.

Bodies were found piled up in the bathrooms, where inmates apparently fled to the showers, hoping the water would save them from blistering flames. Prisoners perished clutching each other in bathtubs and curled up in laundry sinks.

“It was something horrible,” said survivor Eladio Chica, 40, as he was led away by police Wednesday night, handcuffed, to testify before a local court about what he saw. “I only saw flames, and when we got out, men were being burned, up against the bars. They were stuck to them.”

The deadly inferno never had to happen.

The frantic inmate who started the fire gave warning, phoning the state governor and screaming he was going to burn the place down. After the man, who wasn’t identified, set a mattress on fire a few minutes later, 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.

Fifteen minutes away, the U.S. military’s Southern Command operates Joint Task Force Bravo, where major search-and-rescue teams and fire squads are on standby. They were never dispatched.

Story Continues →

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.