Inmates who fled the deadly Comayagua prison blaze broke through ceilings and jumped from high walls to escape the flames, only to find guards who feared a jail break shoot at them.
A total of 355 prisoners were killed when a fire swept through the overcrowded prison in Comayagua, 90 kilometres north of Tegucigalpa.
Survivors who were being treated at the Santa Teresa Hospital in Comayagua recalled their ordeal with horror, haunted by the desperate pleas for help from prisoners trapped in their cells.
“I was woken up by all the screaming from my fellow inmates, who were already breaking the wood and zinc ceiling,” Sevilla, 23, said from a hospital stretcher. He clambered out to the roof and ran over cells on his prison block to escape.
“We had to jump off a wall, while others were dying inside their cells surrounded by flames,” he said. Sevilla, who was doing time for murder, broke his ankle in the fall, but otherwise was unhurt.
A prisoner in charge of the infirmary “broke three padlocks and managed to save a lot of people”, Sevilla added.
It took firefighters three hours to put out the blaze, and when they entered the cell blocks they found the charred remains of prisoners hugging the gates to their cells, unable to escape.
“They burned to death – it was hell,” a survivor said.
Fabricio Contreras, 34, said he was woken up by the general commotion. Word spread of a fire, and the prisoners cried out for the guards to open the cell gate, “but nobody opened it”.
“The prison guards were firing in the air because they thought it was a breakout,” Contreras said.
A group of inmates joined forces to break a hole in the ceiling, “and we climbed onto the roof, ran, and then jumped from a wall”.
The world’s deadliest jail fires
Here is a list of some of the deadliest prison fires around the world.
• February 15, 2012: 358 people dead in fire at Comayagua prison in Honduras.
• April 21, 1930: 322 killed at Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, after fire started on scaffolding. Most died of smoke inhalation when breakdown in command kept guards from unlocking cell doors. Worst prison fire in US history.
• March 7, 2005: 136 male inmates killed in Higuey, Dominican Republic, after prison fight in which inmates set beds on fire. Prisoners accused of jamming cell locks and killing others trying to escape.
• January 3, 1994: 108 people died after inmates set fire in Sabaneta prison in Venezuela.
• May 17, 2004: 104 inmates killed at dilapidated, overcrowded prison in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Police said fire was started by short circuit-sparked explosion.
• April 5, 2003: 86 prisoners died in fires set during riot at El Porvenir prison farm outside La Ceiba, Honduras.
• December 8, 2010: 81 killed in fire begun during prison riot at San Miguel prison in Santiago, Chile.
• September 15, 2003: 67 inmates dead in worst prison fire in Saudi Arabian history, at maximum security al-Hair Prison near Riyadh.
• November 1, 2002: 50 inmates killed in fire at overcrowded Sidi Moussa Prison in coastal town of El Jadida, Morocco. Authorities blamed electrical short circuit for Morocco’s worst prison fire.
• September 20, 2002: 30 male inmates died at La Vega prison in Dominican Republic after mattresses were set ablaze during riot set off by surprise weapons inspection.