Honduras: Prison fire kills over 100

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - Survivors told of a deadly wall of flame that swept through a cellblock crowded with youth gang members in Honduras, killing 103 of them and sending fleeing inmates — many with limbs on fire — scrambling over the bodies of their dead comrades.

As in past prison tragedies, Honduran authorities and inmates differed over the cause: authorities said a short-circuit in overloaded air conditioners sparked Monday's blaze.

But in interviews, four survivors — all members of the feared Mara Salvatrucha 13 gang — told The Associated Press of a much swifter-moving fire they said was set by other inmates in a bid to exterminate them.

"Shoot me! Shoot me! You'd be doing me a favor!" a badly burned inmate, Santos Arnulfo Pena, 29, recalls screaming at guards who trained their guns on inmates fleeing the burning cellblock. The guards fired some warning shots, but all the deaths appeared to be from smoke inhalation and burns.

Prison spokesman Jose Bustillo said many of the gang members tried to attack firefighters when they arrived, prompting guards to fire in the air "to prevent a massive prisoner escape."

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