Quote:340 killed in inferno
By Chris Millar, Evening Standard
2 August 2004
Hundreds of people were left to die inside a blazing supermarket after security staff locked doors to prevent customers from running out without paying, it emerged today.

Initial reports suggested as many as 340 people were killed when the fire tore through a large shopping centre in the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion after an industrial propane tank exploded.

Police have charged the store's owner Juan Pio Paiva and his son Daniel with homicide after they allegedly ordered security personnel to lock down every exit. Firefighters had to batter down the locked main entrance to the complex before they could reach hundreds of trapped shoppers.

EdenMaster Wrote:Was the few bucks he saved worth it?

Quote:6 Are Charged With Murder After Paraguay Store Fire
By TODD BENSON

Published: August 4, 2004

SÃO PAULO, Brazil, Aug. 3 - Prosecutors in Paraguay filed murder charges on Tuesday against the owners and security guards of a megastore in Asunción where as many as 460 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in a fire over the weekend.

In all, six people were charged with criminal homicide, including Juan Pío Paiva, the store owner; his son, Víctor Daniel; and four security guards who were on duty when the fire broke out on Sunday at the Ycuá Bolaños store on the outskirts of Asunción, the capital. If convicted, they could face up to 25 years in prison.

A store manager, Fernando Humberto Casaccia, was also charged with criminal negligence for allegedly refusing to help people escape from the burning building. Mr. Casaccia faces up to two years in prison if he is found guilty.

The police raised the official death toll on Tuesday to 371, and said it would probably increase again. The attorney general's office, however, estimates that as many as 460 people were killed in the fire. At least 400 more were injured in the blaze, which Paraguayan authorities have called the country's worst disaster in decades.

The police now estimate that close to 1,000 people were in the giant store when the fire broke out. There are three other Ycuá Bolaños shopping complexes in Asunción, all of which draw thousands of shoppers on weekends.

"The fire couldn't have happened in a worse place and at a worse time," said Santiago Velazco, a spokesman for the Paraguayan National Police. "These megastores are always packed on Sundays. That's when everyone does their shopping."

Hundreds of shoppers and employees were trapped in the three-story shopping complex after security guards apparently locked the emergency exits after the fire started. Prosecutors believe the store's managers ordered the guards to block the exits to stop people from stealing merchandise in the chaos.

"One of the guards has already confessed that he was given orders by radio to lock the doors," Edgar Sánchez, the prosecutor handling the investigation, said by telephone from Asunción. "That means that someone is criminally responsible for the death of those people."

Mr. Paiva has denied that the doors were locked deliberately.

Although authorities are still investigating, firefighters suspect the fire was started by a gas leak that caused two explosions in the building's food court, which was packed with families having lunch. The flames quickly spread through the rest of the shopping complex, which also housed offices and an underground parking garage. The heat of the blaze caused the first floor to collapse, crushing people in parked cars in the garage.

Rescue workers were still uncovering bodies on Tuesday. The police said that about 90 victims had not been identified and that dozens more were still missing. Television images showed several people frantically searching for family members among the dead.

The disaster has aroused a national outcry in Paraguay, a poor nation of about six million people that borders Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil. President Nicanor Duarte Frutos, who visited the scene on Sunday, declared three days of national mourning. Stores in Ciudad del Leste, the country's second largest city, closed on Tuesday for an hour to honor the dead, dozens of whom were children.

Quote:A store manager, Fernando Humberto Casaccia, was also charged with criminal negligence for allegedly refusing to help people escape from the burning building.

Quote: One of the guards even shot at a firefighter who sought to break down the doors, according to fire brigade Commander Oscar Ojeda.

Quote:One of the guards even shot at a firefighter who sought to break down the doors, according to fire brigade Commander Oscar Ojeda.