COMAYAGUA, Honduras — The only police officer with keys to every cell had a panic attack and ran off after the fire broke out. Firefighters, some only five minutes away, weren’t called until nearly 20 minutes after the first flames were spotted. And once they arrived, they remained outside for several critical minutes after hearing gunshots from the watchtowers and the screams of dying inmates.
Human-rights advocates and relatives of some of the 355 inmates who died Tuesday night say the deaths were unnecessary and blame the negligence of staff at this prison in northern Honduras.
“What we can definitely say is that these deaths could have been avoided if the cells had simply been unlocked,” said Andres Pavon, president of the Honduran Committee for the Defense of Human Rights. “We’ve found negligence here.”
New details emerged on Thursday about the fire, during which officers began shooting into the air. Some stayed frozen in their posts, and some ran off
Fire department commanders and firefighters said they did not receive an emergency call until 10:59 p.m. Tuesday, nearly 20 minutes after the fire started. Then they waited outside the gates to avoid the gunfire from four officers in separate watchtowers.
Police officers denied they shot directly at prisoners, as some survivors said.
Authorities said there was no plan for how to deal with fires at the minimum-security prison. And the place was overcrowded: More than 830 prisoners were housed in a facility supposed to hold less than 500.
Only three officers were on the grounds and only one of them had the keys. He apparently had a panic attack, said Pavon and several prisoners who survived. The officer, who has not been identified, dropped or threw the keys while the fire spread.
“Finally, one of the prisoners grabbed the keys and began opening the locks,” said Roseno Sanchez Mendez, one of the prisoners.
Authorities continued to investigate what caused Tuesday’s fire. Many officials said they thought it was intentional, beginning with a fight between two inmates in Cell Six.
Authorities are still leaving open the possibility that it was an electrical fire.
A third theory was that the fire was set by prisoners in collusion with police officers, who would allow them to escape. Pavon confirmed that investigators are analyzing the bank accounts of police officials across the country.
