10 prisoners killed in Philippines jail fire

MANILA: Ten prisoners were killed in a massive fire in a high security jail in the Philippines on Thursday. One building was gutted. The prison houses over 1,000 inmates. A number of prisoners were caught in the blaze.

The massive fire spread through the psychiatric ward of the provincial jail, authorities said. The facility was operating at more than double its capacity when on Thursday the blaze struck the maximum security section of the jail in Abuyog town in Leyte island, 620 km southeast of Manila.

One prison building was destroyed as the fire raged for eight hours. The prison was built for 500 inmates, but had 1,256 men at the time of mishap. The cause of the fire is still being investigated. Faulty wiring may have caused the fire, it is said.

This is the second incident of fire in two years at the Leyte Regional Prison. Philippine prisons are always overcrowded and the facilities inside are said to be very poor.

October 9, 2015