Honduran prison was a ‘powderkeg’

INVESTIGATORS have concluded the prison fire started accidentally, perhaps caused by a lit match, cigarette or some other open flame near a mattress in the dormitory-like cell blocks.

Inmates hung clothes, curtains and electrical devices from their tightly packed bunks. Some also had makeshift stoves. Where the fire started, there were 105 prisoners crammed into rows of bunks, four high. All but four died.

There were only six guards supervising 852 prisoners in the prison, about 55 miles north of Honduras’ capital, Tegucigalpa. Officials said its capacity was 500, with more than half of its inmates on remand awaiting trial.