Burundi Fires Old Prison, 38 Dead And 68 Seriously Injured

Illustration of a fire fighting effort. (Wikimedia Commons/DVIDSHUB)

JAKARTA - A massive fire engulfed a crowded prison in Burundi before dawn on Tuesday, killing dozens of inmates and injuring many more, the country's vice president said.

Many inmates were still sleeping at the time of the fire that destroyed parts of the facility in Burundi's political capital, Gitega, witnesses said.

Burundi's Vice President Prosper Bazombanza, who visited the fire site with several senior ministers, said 38 people had died and 69 were seriously injured.

The fire broke out at around 04.00 a.m. local time. The interior ministry said on Twitter that it was caused by an electrical short.

"We started screaming that we were going to be burned alive when we saw the fire rising very high, but the police refused to open our bedroom door, saying 'this is the order we have received'," one inmate said.

"I don't know how I escaped, but there were prisoners who were burned to death," he said.

Those with the most serious burns were taken to hospital, some transported in police pick-up trucks, while others were treated at the scene, witnesses said.

A team from the Red Cross in Burundi were on site to treat the victims, and the blaze was now under control, witnesses said.

The nearly 100-year-old prison, Burundi's third-largest, houses a number of political prisoners in a high-security complex, and there is also a women's wing.

Overall, there were more than 1.500 inmates at the end of November, according to prison authority figures, much higher than the designed capacity of 400.

A large contingent of police and soldiers surrounded the site and prevented journalists from approaching or taking pictures, witnesses said.

Separately, police sources said emergency services were late to the scene, with a fire truck arriving just two hours after the start of the blaze.

There was a fire at the same prison in August, according to the interior ministry, which blamed an electrical short circuit. No fatalities were reported from the incident.

To note, chronic overcrowding is a problem in Burundi's prisons, where there are a total of about 12.400 inmates living in accommodation designed for 4.200, according to October figures, despite a presidential amnesty in June in which 5.000 prisoners were released.