Indonesian prison fire kills 41

Yasonna Laoly, Indonesia’s Minister of Law and Human Rights, said the prison, located in an industrial area on the western part of the island of Java, housed 2,072 people, five times its capacity.

“The fire grew so fast,” said Mr Laoly, adding that rescuers were unable to reach some cells in time.

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire. Mr Laoly said it was likely due to an electrical problem, as the prison’s electrical system had not been improved since it was built in 1972.

At 1:45 a.m. local time on Wednesday morning, prison officials noticed flames and contacted firefighters, who dispatched units that arrived 13 minutes later. Rescuers rushed to open the doors of as many cells as they could, Mr Laoly said, allowing dozens of people from the affected prison block to escape, some with injuries that were being treated in a nearby dispensary.

Forty prisoners died at the scene, while another died on the way to hospital, he said. TV footage showed rescuers carrying dead bodies in orange body bags. The fire was extinguished within 90 minutes.

All but two of the deceased were convicted of drug-related offenses, the rest being jailed for murder and terrorism offenses.

Human rights groups have issued warnings about Indonesia’s overcrowded prisons, which they say have made them sites of Covid-19 infection.

An Indonesian government website showed that last month the country’s prisons were almost 100% over capacity, with around 265,500 people held but space for just 135,500 people.

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