Fire at 'locked' drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre in Peru kills 27
Addicts unable to escape as flames engulf Christ is Love building in Lima, which health minister says was unlicensed
Associated Press, Lima
A woman cries outside a rehabilitation centre where a fire left at least 27 people dead in Lima, Peru. Photograph: Paolo Aguilar/EPA
A fire swept through a two-storey private rehabilitation centre for drug and alcohol addicts in a poor part of Peru's capital on Saturday, killing 27 people and critically injuring five as firefighters broke through walls to rescue residents locked inside.
The Christ is Love centre in Lima was unlicensed and overcrowded and its residents were apparently kept inside "like prisoners", health minister Alberto Tejada said. Officials reported that 26 people died at the scene and one man died in hospital later.
Peru's fire chief, Antonio Zavala, said most of the victims died of asphyxiation. All the victims appeared to be male.
The local police chief, Clever Zegarra, said the cause of the 9am fire was under investigation.
"There has been talk of the burning of an object, of a mattress, but also of a fight that resulted in a fire. All of this is speculation," he said. "I've been here at the scene from morning to evening but for the moment the exact cause of the fire is not known."
One resident of the centre on a narrow dead-end street in Lima's teeming San Juan de Lurigancho district said he was eating breakfast on the second floor when he saw flames coming from the first floor, where the blaze apparently began.
Gianfranco Huerta told local RPP news radio station that he leaped from a window to safety.
"The doors were locked; there was no way to get out," he told the station.
Witnesses said all the windows of the building they were able to see were barred. Journalists were not allowed inside as police cordoned off the block. By early afternoon, all the dead had been removed from the centre.
Most of the bodies seen by reporters were shirtless, their faces blackened. Many were also shoeless.
"This rehabilitation centre wasn't authorised. It was a house that they had taken over … for patients with addictions and they had the habit of leaving people locked up with no medical supervision," Tejada said.
Authorities said they did not know how many people were inside the centre at the time of the fire.
They said they were looking for the centre's owners and staff, some of whom apparently fled the scene.
Zoila Chea, the aunt of one victim, said families paid the centre's owner $37 (£23) to treat an addicted relative and $15 a week thereafter.
She said that neighbours had constantly complained about the centre and that it had been closed twice by authorities.
Chea, 45, said relatives were prohibited from seeing interned patients during the first three months of treatment, which she added consisted mainly of reading the Bible.
Her nephew, Luis Chea, was at the centre for a month, she said.
Zavala said the blaze was of "Dantesque proportions". Firefighters had to punch a hole through a wall with an adjoining building to help people trapped inside the centre.
"We've had to use electric saws to cut through the metal bars of the doors to be able to work," Zavala said.
Relatives of residents of the centre gathered near the building weeping and seeking word of their loved ones. As the day wore on, nearby sidewalks filled with relatives mourning and trying to console one another.
One of them was Maria Benitez, aunt of 18-year-old Carlos Benitez, who she said was being treated at the centre. "I want to know if he is OK or not," she said.COPY http://www.guardian.co.uk/
The Christ is Love centre in Lima was unlicensed and overcrowded and its residents were apparently kept inside "like prisoners", health minister Alberto Tejada said. Officials reported that 26 people died at the scene and one man died in hospital later.
Peru's fire chief, Antonio Zavala, said most of the victims died of asphyxiation. All the victims appeared to be male.
The local police chief, Clever Zegarra, said the cause of the 9am fire was under investigation.
"There has been talk of the burning of an object, of a mattress, but also of a fight that resulted in a fire. All of this is speculation," he said. "I've been here at the scene from morning to evening but for the moment the exact cause of the fire is not known."
One resident of the centre on a narrow dead-end street in Lima's teeming San Juan de Lurigancho district said he was eating breakfast on the second floor when he saw flames coming from the first floor, where the blaze apparently began.
Gianfranco Huerta told local RPP news radio station that he leaped from a window to safety.
"The doors were locked; there was no way to get out," he told the station.
Witnesses said all the windows of the building they were able to see were barred. Journalists were not allowed inside as police cordoned off the block. By early afternoon, all the dead had been removed from the centre.
Most of the bodies seen by reporters were shirtless, their faces blackened. Many were also shoeless.
"This rehabilitation centre wasn't authorised. It was a house that they had taken over … for patients with addictions and they had the habit of leaving people locked up with no medical supervision," Tejada said.
Authorities said they did not know how many people were inside the centre at the time of the fire.
They said they were looking for the centre's owners and staff, some of whom apparently fled the scene.
Zoila Chea, the aunt of one victim, said families paid the centre's owner $37 (£23) to treat an addicted relative and $15 a week thereafter.
She said that neighbours had constantly complained about the centre and that it had been closed twice by authorities.
Chea, 45, said relatives were prohibited from seeing interned patients during the first three months of treatment, which she added consisted mainly of reading the Bible.
Her nephew, Luis Chea, was at the centre for a month, she said.
Zavala said the blaze was of "Dantesque proportions". Firefighters had to punch a hole through a wall with an adjoining building to help people trapped inside the centre.
"We've had to use electric saws to cut through the metal bars of the doors to be able to work," Zavala said.
Relatives of residents of the centre gathered near the building weeping and seeking word of their loved ones. As the day wore on, nearby sidewalks filled with relatives mourning and trying to console one another.
One of them was Maria Benitez, aunt of 18-year-old Carlos Benitez, who she said was being treated at the centre. "I want to know if he is OK or not," she said.COPY http://www.guardian.co.uk/
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