Indonesian prison fire kills 41 inmates
A fire at a prison in the Indonesian city of Tangerang, on the island of Java, has killed at least 41 inmates and injured dozens more. Cause of the Indonesian prison fire could not be ascertained yet.
Firefighters contained the blaze around 3 a.m. and evacuated the victims. Most of the inmates arrested on drug charges were in the block of the jail where the fire broke out. Most of them were asleep when the incident took place.
Jakarta Police Chief Fadil Imran told a press conference that 41 prisoners had been killed in the blaze and the condition of eight was critical while 72 were slightly injured.
“Authorities are trying to determine the cause of the fire, but it is possible the blaze was caused by a short circuit,” he said.
The Jakarta police chief said that they had inspected the site of the incident and based on initial observations, it was suspected that the fire was caused by a short circuit.
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Relatives of the deceased inmates were seen mourning outside the jail while waiting to receive the dead bodies.
The Prisons Department’s website shows that there were more than 2,000 inmates in the prison, three times more than the original capacity.
On August 28, a report had revealed the causes behind increased number of deaths in Karachi chemical factory fire that had erupted on August 27 in Mehran Town, Korangi district.
The death toll in the incident had risen to 17. The rescue operation had been completed at the factory. While, the Deputy Commissioner had sent a preliminary report to Commissioner Karachi Naveed Sheikh on the fire and deaths in the incident.
According to the report, the fire had spread rapidly due to the chemicals in the factory and the death toll increased because of absence of emergency exit. The lack of arrangements for an emergency situation had caused the deaths of the workers because of suffocation.
