78 Killed in a Fire in Venezuelan Prison

A fire ripped through the detention center of a police headquarters west of Caracas on Wednesday morning as families waited outside for visiting with the detainees. As the flames and smoke engulfed the jail, frantic relatives clashed with police, who drove them back with tear gas.
Distraught families are demanding information from the Venezuelan authorities about how at least 78 people died in a fire while they were locked in police cells.
As smoke and flames engulfed the jail, television news footage showed desperate families pushing toward a line of police officers before being driven back by tear gas and rubber bullets. Some people stumbled in the chaos as the bullets kicked up puffs of dust in the road outside the police station.
“I want justice for my son,” said Rocky Varela, 53, who said his 27-year-old son had been killed in the blaze. “Those who did this should pay.”
Tarek William Saab, chief prosecutor of Venezuela said four prosecutors were being assigned to investigate what happened and who was responsible for the tragedy in Valencia, a town in Carabobo state 100 miles west of Caracas, the nation’s capital.
Carlos Nieto Palma, director of the nonprofit prison watchdog group A Window to Freedom, said the blaze began after an attempted jailbreak failed and inmates set fire to their mattresses. The inmates immediately began to succumb to the heavy smoke.
“The fire caused so much smoke that people started to die in the enclosed space,” Nieto Palma said.
> Shiuly Akter