Anger and questions after Chile’s prison inferno

Amateur video and inmates’ accounts have triggered more uncomfortable questions about the prison fire in Chile that has claimed at least 81 lives.

“Open the doors,” prisoners are heard shouting on the footage. “Everything is closed. We are burning.”

Officials say the blaze began after a brawl at the jail in Santiago.

But speaking on Chilean television, an unidentified prisoner accused guards of lashing out instead of first trying to get inmates out of the burning jail.

In his words “the prison staff came in like crazy, like they always do, beating everybody.”

Housing more than 1,900 inmates, nearly twice its capacity, conditions at the jail have been described as “inhumane” by Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera. Lamenting what he called a “huge and painful tragedy” he expressed solidarity with the bereaved.

Frantic relatives flocked to the prison gates hoping their worst fears would not be confirmed. But with claims of late intervention by fire crews adding to the controversy legal action is now being considered by some grieving families.

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