20210909 Fire at overcrowded Indonesian prison kills 41, injures 80
Indonesia Sep 09 2021 “Building” “Other bldg.”
Dead : dead more than 10 Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured more than 10
Fire at overcrowded Indonesian prison kills 41, injures 80
Updated: 2021-09-09
A fire tore through an overcrowded Indonesian prison in the early hours of yesterday when most inmates were asleep, killing 41 people and injuring dozens of others, an official said.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze — which was mostly contained within one block that housed prisoners jailed on drug charges — at about 3am and evacuated the victims.
Television footage showed a massive fire raging through the prison block, with thick smoke billowing from the building as firefighters raced to put out the flames.
“Forty-one inmates died, eight were badly injured and 72 others sustained minor injuries,” Jakarta Police Chief Fadil Imran told a news conference.
Authorities were still investigating the cause of the incident at Tangerang Penitentiary, just outside the capital, Jakarta, but suspected an electrical fault might have been to blame.
“I have checked the scene. Based on early observation, it is suspected [the fire] happened because of a short circuit,” Imran said.
The Web site of the Indonesian Directorate-General of Corrections showed that the jail had just over 2,000 inmates, more than three times as many prisoners as it was designed to hold.
The block where the fire broke out had a maximum capacity of 40 inmates, but housed 120, Indonesian Directorate-General of Corrections spokesperson Rika Aprianti told Metro TV.
Overcrowded, unsanitary conditions are common in Indonesian prisons, which contain about 270,000 inmates, and jailbreaks are frequent.
In 2019, at least 100 prisoners escaped from a jail in Riau Province, Sumatra, after a riot and fire broke out.
In April last year, Indonesia released about 29,000 inmates in a bid to stop COVID-19 from rampaging through a prison system known for its unsanitary conditions.
Web Source: Taipei Times
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2021/09/09/2003764085