Official: 358 killed in Honduras prison fire

Forensic workers carry away the body of an inmate who died in a prison fire in Comayagua, Honduras, 90 miles north of the capital, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Wednesday . At least 300 inmates were killed and 21 are injured, according to authorities.

COMAYAGUA, Honduras — Honduran officials confirmed Wednesday that 358 people died when a fire tore through an overcrowded prison, making it the world's deadliest prison fire in a century.

With 856 prisoners packed into barracks, the farm prison in the Comayagua province north of the capital was at double capacity, said Supreme Court Justice Richard Ordonez, who is leading the investigation.

Ordonez told The Associated Press the fire started in a barracks where 105 prisoners were bunked, and only four of them survived. Some 115 bodies have been sent to the morgue in the capital of Tegucigalpa.

The fire started by an inmate tore through the prison, burning and suffocating screaming men in their crowded barracks as rescuers desperately searched for keys to unlock the doors.

The local governor, who was once a prison employee, told reporters that an inmate called her moments before the blaze broke out and screamed: "I will set this place on fire and we are all going to die!"

Comayagua Gov. Paola Castro said she called the Red Cross and fire brigade immediately. But firefighters said they were kept outside for half an hour by guards who fired their guns in the air, thinking they had a riot or a breakout on their hands.

Officials have long had little control over conditions inside many Honduran prisons, where inmates have largely unfettered access to cell phones and other contraband.

Survivors also told investigators that the unidentified inmate yelled "We will all die here!" as he lit fire to his bedding late Tuesday night in the prison in Comayagua,

53 miles north of Tegucigalpa. The lockup housed people convicted of serious crimes such as homicide and armed robbery, but also people awaiting trial.

"We couldn't get them out because we didn't have the keys and couldn't find the guards who had them," Comayagua fire department spokesman Josue Garcia said.

Other prisoners were set free by guards but died from the flames or smoke as they tried to flee into the fields surrounding the facility, where prisoners grew corn and beans on a state-run farm.

Rescuers carried shirtless, semiconscious prisoners from the prison by their arms and legs. One hauled a victim away by piggyback.

Comayagua was built in the 1940s for 400 inmates.

Unlike U.S. prisons, where locks can be released automatically in an emergency, Honduran prisons are infamous for being old, overcrowded hotbeds of conflict and crime.

Info : News