Prison blaze kills 134 inmates

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – A fight between two gangs in a prison cellblock nicknamed Vietnam sparked a fire Monday that killed at least 134 inmates – the second Latin American jailhouse fire in a year to kill more than 100.

Authorities said the gangs began fighting around midnight Sunday for control over the cellblock in a prison in the city of Higuey, about 90 miles east of Santo Domingo. One gang leader, who apparently had a gun, shot and killed a rival while other gang members fought with knives and machetes.

The fire followed around 1 a.m. as gang members used insecticides and other flammables to burn pillows and mattresses. They also apparently locked themselves into the Vietnam cellblock to prevent prison guards from entering, unwittingly blocking their own escapes.

“This is a terrible thing that we’re sorry for,” the Dominican Republic’s Attorney General Francisco Dominguez told the media. The director of the country’s prison system, Juan Ramon de la Cruz Martinez, put the death toll so far at 134 and said another 19 inmates were injured.

Dominguez said his office would investigate the causes of the fire as well as possible negligence on the part of prison guards and administrators. The prison warden and all the guards are already in custody.

“There was negligence, at least, in this case,” the attorney general said to journalists, “Because the gang member who allegedly started the brawl should not have a gun.”

But there may be more to investigate than just who allowed one handgun into the cellblock.

One inmate who didn’t identify himself told local television that the guards stopped the initial fight and removed one of the brawlers only to return him to the cellblock later, causing a second fight to ensue. Another inmate who survived the fire told a Dominican journalist that the guards blocked their exit from the cellblock during the fire.

“The police wouldn’t let us get out, they had us blocked in while the jail burned,” he said.

Survivors of a similar prison fire in Honduras in June that killed at least 104 inmates made similar allegations against their guards. That fire appeared to have been started by an electrical short circuit.

While authorities at the Higuey prison struggled to identify the charred remains of the dead, government helicopters ferried some of the worst burn victims to Santo Domingo hospitals where relatives of the inmates anxiously awaited.