A Monstrous Act

As a reader noted in the previous post about the horrific fire in Paraguay yesterday, it appears the doors were chained shut. Now there are additional witnesses making this claim:

Esther Benitez, a 30-year-old cashier who suffered burns, said she at first found her way blocked as she tried to escape. "I ran toward the main door but it was locked," she told The Associated Press from her hospital bed Monday.

Some neighbors said they were forced to break windows to enter the supermarket because the doors wouldn't open.

"There were people crowded outside the main entrance using sticks and poles trying to open the door," said Raul Tamay, who rushed to the supermarket and found his brother, Hernan, who had been shopping inside.

"We couldn't get inside and the people couldn't get out," said Liliana Hernandez, 33, who lives next door to the Ycua Bolanos supermarket.

She said even firefighters, frustrated in their efforts to get inside, resorted to battering holes through a wall of her house to reach the supermarket. "They broke two giant holes in the wall to carry bodies out," she said.

If this is true, there is probably not an appropriate fate in a decent person's mind for those responsible.

Comments

[Tom DC/VA]

Tragedies of this nature almost always involve chained doors, blocked exits, or some other factor that violates code. Buildings designed and contructed in compliance with relatively recent code are quite safe when operated properly. Hopefully the management and owners of the supermarket will be punished properly.