Evening Standard via Thisislondon.com: 340 killed in inferno
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.
President Nicanor Duarte, who rushed to the scene of the disaster, has promised a full investigation.Witnesses have said that people had to escape through the windows because the doors within the centre had been deliberately closed to prevent people leaving without paying.
One survivor told reporters: "They closed the door in our face."
The shopping centre owner, who is being questioned by police, told local television that he did not believe he was "the least bit to blame".
Juan Pio Paiva added that he "greatly regretted" the tragedy and "shared" in the victims' sorrow.
© BBC
Survivors of an inferno in a crowded supermarket said Monday that locked doors slowed their escape from a fast-spreading fire that killed at least 311 people Paraguay's worst disaster in more than half a century.[...]
Authorities said they had detained two owners of the supermarket for questioning about reports by some survivors that doors had been locked. A statement released by the management denied doors were locked after the fire broke out to prevent looting.
Juan Pio Paiva, one of the detained owners, also dismissed speculation that doors had been deliberately locked.
"The security guards confirmed that the doors weren't closed by them," he said, angrily. He said he "lamented" the disaster and said the building met safety standards.
One survivor, Celeste Silva Hermosa, told Paraguayan television Canal 13 that she found her way blocked as she tried to escape. "The door was closed," said Silva Hermoso, adding that she was not sure how she made it outside. "The people just kept pushing me along."
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Investigators in Paraguay are searching for evidence that security guards might have trapped shoppers in a burning supermarket by locking the doors to stop looting, while the death toll in the country's worst tragedy in decades rose to nearly 300.President Nicanor Duarte Frutos called for a rapid investigation into Sunday's blaze "so those responsible are punished with the full force of the law."
"There are several witnesses who saw how they shut the doors to the supermarket and we also confirmed that the emergency exit was welded," Paraguay's Police Chief Humberto Nunez told Reuters on Monday.
Three owners of the Ycua Bolanos supermarket and three security guards are in police custody, but main shareholder Juan Pio Paiva said no orders were given to lock the doors.
"The company has insurance against vandalism," he told a news conference. "It does not make sense in a fire of this magnitude for security guards to close the doors and stay inside."
© Reuters 2004. All rights reserved.
"There are several witnesses who saw how they shut the doors to the supermarket and we also confirmed that the emergency exit was soldered," Paraguay's police chief Humberto Nunez said.© 2004 Independent Online. All rights strictly reserved.
Paraguayan authorities have arrested the owners of a supermarket that caught on fire over the weekend, killing almost 300 people and injuring another 300.ABC Color newspaper reported Monday that Juan Paiva and his son Daniel were taken into custody on charges of negligible homicide. According to eyewitness testimony, the doors to the Asuncion supermarket were locked when the blaze broke out Sunday, as the owners did not want customers to leave without paying.
Copyright © 1998-2003 Big News Network.com. All rights reserved.
"Most of the people were killed by asphyxiation because they breathed in toxic fumes. If they had been allowed to get out they would not have died," said fire chief Hugo Onieva.Prosecutors have said Juan Pio Paiva, owner of the supermarket, will be charged with second degree homicide.
[...]
Firefighters believe a spark hit an industrial-sized propane gas tank in the food court of the complex, which also housed offices and a parking garage. Witnesses said they heard several explosions.
The fire started just before midday when the supermarket was at its busiest with between 500 and 700 customers. The complex was destroyed in less than half an hour.
[...]
"By some miracle I got out before the doors closed. After me no-one got out," said 23-year-old student Juan Morinigo, who was in shock.
Another survivor, Rosa Resquin, said she heard someone ordering the store doors closed, yelling "no one gets out of here without paying."
"When they arrived, the police and firemen opened the doors, but it was already too late," she told reporters.
Copyright © 104 MCN International Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Prosecutor Edgar Sanchez, in charge of investigating the blaze, told reporters that shopping centre owner Juan Pio Paiva will be charged with homicide for blocking the doors. Paiva surrendered to the authorities, but denied ordering workers to close the shopping centre doors.© 2003 Mid-Day Multimedia Ltd. All rights reserved
Police are questioning Juan Pio Paiva, owner and president of Ycua Bolanos SA, and the rest of the six-member board to determine whether they authorized locking the doors of the center to prevent looting after the fire began, Manuel Sarquis, director of the government's national emergency committee, said in a telephone interview from Asuncion, Paraguay's capital.©2004 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved.
Theft is a clear-cut case of immoral behavior and should never be dismissed, rationalized, or ignored. Any business owner is right to condemn it and want it reduced as much as possible. Anyone caught, no matter what the value of the loot, deserves punishment.
However, does that mean the owner of the property can do whatever he or she feels is necessary to do to keep that property safe? Assuming Mr. Paiva did order the doors locked, I'd say no.
Given the swift and chaotic nature of the fire, it would require an almost Herculean effort to identify the potential thieves and detain them in the window of time available. Only individuals act and capitalism demands respect for individual rights, beginning with the right to one's own life. Detaining hundreds of people, innocent of theft or not, within a ferociously burning building is an open-handed slap in the face of those rights. It is within the realm of possibility that every rational human tried to flee with something tucked under their clothing but it is far more likely that upon seeing the situation deteriorate, most people dropped what they were doing and anything not critical to their lives. Locking the doors would be an act of collective punishment, condemning hundreds to injury or death for the actions of a few.
Furthermore, by ordering the guards to close the doors, their lives are placed at risk as well. No man has the right to order another to his death.
For those few who might have attempted to steal, Mr. Paiva's own statement is instructive:
The company has insurance against vandalism. It does not make sense in a fire of this magnitude for security guards to close the doors and stay inside.
What would the store's owner, assuming the doors were ordered closed, expected to accomplish with that course of action? Would these people have returned to the checkout isles and waited in line to pay at the cash register while a blaze eats up the building around them? Would the clerks working the checkout lines stayed behind to conduct the transactions knowing the same? It would be flatly stupid to try this. The fire would have destroyed the money anyway a few minutes after changing hands.
Accusations of greed for the purpose of defaming the free market are sure to follow this. But greed isn't just about wanting money. It's about lusting after it at the expense of all other values. This would be greed heightened to insanity and entirely different from the charges of greed we hear about every day.
Given my ignorance of the situation and the people involved, I assume nothing about this incident. Hopefully, what started out as a tragedy won't get worse.
UPDATE(8/6/2004 9:02am)
A quick scan of the news reveals some new info.
Taipei Times: Forensics team analyzes Paraguay market fire site
An international forensic team examined the charred interior of a Paraguayan supermarket to determine the cause of a weekend blaze that killed more than 400 people, many of whom were trapped inside by locked doors.As the specialists from Argentina, Colombia and the US took burn samples from the building, Interior Minister Orlando Fiorott said the investigation "clearly points" to an accidental gas leak that ignited. He said that it didn't look as if Sunday's blaze had been intentionally set, but cautioned that the findings were preliminary.
The death toll was revised to 426 on Wednesday, down from 464 a day earlier; 520 people remained hospitalized with burns and other injuries. The attorney general's office said 153 were reported missing.
Copyright © 1999-2004 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved.
Children across Paraguay returned to school Thursday after a three-day national mourning for the 45 youngsters and nearly 400 adults killed by a weekend fire at a supermarket in Asuncion.Teachers at the Uruguayan Republic school, just blocks from the destroyed Ycua Bolanos market, opened the day with a prayer and hymns as some teary-eyed children stood quietly during a ceremony remembering six classmates who died in the blaze.
At least 25 parents of children who attend the school in a middle-class neighborhood also died in Paraguay's worst disaster in decades.
[...]
Rescue workers said they found the bodies of about 45 children, a few still in the arms of their parents. The store was inaugurating a new play area at the time of the fire, and many families had come to shop with their children, officials said.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Officials charged a co-owner of the supermarket and four others with manslaughter Tuesday after a security guard said he was ordered to lock the doors to prevent people from stealing.Officials have said they were checking reports that an exploding gas canister could have started the flames, which forced a floor to collapse, crushing cars and burning many bodies beyond recognition.
[...]
The charges came after chief investigator Edgar Sanchez said a security guard testified he was told via radio to lock the doors when the fire began. Sanchez said the guard didn't know who gave the order.
[...]
Paraguayan officials said they've begun reviewing leading shopping centers in the capital and their emergency preparations.
Angel Villalba, the president of the Paraguayan Association of Supermarkets, told a radio station that initial findings have been alarming.
"Almost none of them have emergency exits," he said.
© 2000-2004 Arizona Daily Sun
Paraguayan president said Thursday that irregularities existed in the construction of the building, in which 504 people were killed in a weekend blaze on the outskirts of Asuncion, Paraguay's capital."Bribery prevails," Nicanor Duarte said during his second visitto the site of the fire that destroyed Ycua Bolanos supermarket.
Construction regulations were breached, and the buildings lack an efficient security system, the president said, adding there were not enough emergency exits and extinguishers.
Bolanos said the incident, considered as the worst in the history of the country, must lead to reflections among people so as to avoid the repetition of the "terrible vices."
[...]
The supermarket owner Juan Pio Paiva and his son Victor Daniel Paiva, accused of manslaughter, were held in preventive detention on Tuesday, as eyewitnesses said the son ordered supermarket guards to close doors to prevent people from leaving without paying.
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
Xinhuanet: Investigation on cause of fire in Asuncion starts
"We don't rule out any hypothesis because the investigation has just started," Teresa Sosa, the prosecutor for the case, told the press at the coordination center set up by the parking lot of the destroyed Ycua Bolanos supermarket.[...]
Agent Benedicto Perez of the Argentine province of Formosa, in the border with Paraguay, assured that the possibility of an attack was ruled out and, in principle, the fire could be an accident.
His views echoed those of Paraguay's Interior Minister Orlando Fiorotto, who labeled the incident that has left 504 dead and 500 injured as "accidental."
[...]
Nine agents of the United States Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agency (ATF) arrived Thursday in Asuncion to join the team of investigators, which added the number of agents from that country in Paraguay to 12, according to information released by Paraguayandaily ABC Color.
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
News24: Short-circuit caused blaze
An electrical short-circuit apparently caused the Asuncion supermarket blaze last Sunday, Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte said on Thursday, blaming locked gates for many of the more than 400 deaths."Initial information shows it probably was a short-circuit," the president said as he surveyed the aftermath of the fire.
"People were locked in. That is why the number of victims was enormous," said Duarte.
The president also said there were not enough emergency exits.
The owners of the shopping centre and four guards have been arrested and charged with ordering the gates locked during the blaze so shoppers would not leave without paying.
Even children said security personnel prevented them from leaving as flames engulfed the shopping center,
Firefighter Juan Carlos Valiente recalled the horror of seeing the lifeless bodies of children who died in each others' arms.
As the fire raged, guards used rifles to hold back the fleeing crowd, said Valiente, adding that one of them threatened him with a pistol and fired it in the air.
Paraguay's President Nicanor Duarte has said Sunday's deadly fire at a shopping centre exposed a serious failure to enforce building regulations.Mr Duarte made a second visit to the scene of the blaze on the outskirts of the capital, Asuncion, in which more than 420 people were killed.
[...]
President Duarte said: "If buildings are put up and corners are cut, so that instead of 15 fire extinguishers there are eight or five, and instead of seven emergency exits there are three, and very narrow ones at that... then someone has been bribed, there are bribers and bribe-takers."
© BBC
Newsday: WORLD BRIEFS
The co-owner of a supermarket and four security guards were charged with manslaughter for a fire in Asuncion, Paraguay, that killed 464 people on Sunday. The charges came after a guard testified he was ordered to lock the burning store's doors to prevent looting, trapping shoppers inside. Owner Juan Pio Paiva rejected the allegations as he was brought to jail Tuesday, shouting, "My conscience is clear." Paiva's son, Daniel, was under investigation.Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
UNICEF backs emotional recovery plan for child survivors of Paraguayan fire
In an effort to help grieving Paraguayan children cope with their emotions and begin resuming a normal life after the disastrous supermarket fire earlier this month that killed some 400 people, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is supporting a programme of psychosocial assistance called 'Return to Happiness.'The programme, involving play-related activities in which youngsters aged between 6 and 14 share their stories, games and music, is intended to benefit 1,500 children under the direct supervision of professional psychologists, with 150 young volunteers helping to carry it out.
The Herald Press: Rotary sending 'team' to help in Ecuador
City officials and local Rotarians will be making a trek to South America to help prevent tragic deaths and suggest formulating safety standards.Rotary Club members John Forneris, John Parker and Al Santostefano will be traveling with Forneris’ son Stephen to Guayaquil, Ecuador in an effort to aid in the possible initiation of building codes within the city. The foursome will be leaving for their week-long trip on Aug. 31 and work with officials and Rotary Club members from Guayaquil.
"We’re there to help," Forneris said, adding the officials will be looking at high-profile buildings, give analyses and look at what threats there may be to life safety. "We’re applying technology and engineering in a humanitarian way. It’s a unique approach."
[...]
The Rotarians said they believed building and fire codes may have more attention brought upon them following the fatal mall fire in Paraguay earlier this month.
Nearly 300 people were killed and several hundred were injured when a fire swept through a shopping complex in Asuncion, and the doors were blocked by security personnel to prevent shoplifting.
Parker and Santostefano said they will be showing how they perform inspections, such as why doors should not be locked in public places and the need for emergency lighting in case of a fire.
"We’re kind of excited. We’re getting involved in this to help another country and community," Forneris said.
"I’m looking forward to it," Parker said, adding the project has been in the making for nearly a year. "John Forneris made this thing come together."
Parker, in turn, brought the idea of the trip to Santostefano’s attention.
"I thought it’d be interesting," Santostefano said, adding it would be a learning process for him of what it is like with no building or fire safety codes. "It makes me think more about why we have codes. I’m excited about going."
"It should be very educational. I think it will be very well received," Parker added. "I hope the government takes this (information) and builds on it."
©The Middletown Press 2004
A private initiative with the goal of increasing public intrusion.
Xinhua: Paraguayan supermarket fire affects 1,000 families
The fire in a supermarket on the outskirts of Asuncion, capital of Paraguay, left at least 1,000 families affected for the death, disappearance and injuries of their relatives.The incident, which occurred on Aug. 1 in the Ycua Bolanos supermarket, left 417 dead and 55 charred human remains, plus 49 missing, according to Director of the National Emergency Council, Aristides Gonzalez. In addition, 477 injured were hospitalized.
The Mental Health Direction of the Public Health Ministry is providing psychological assistance to 376 people affected in one way or another in the fire, said the official.
The fire broke out when the supermarket was crowded with Sunday midday shoppers. Reports said nearly 1,000 people had been inside the shopping center, which is part of the complex that also houses offices and an underground parking lot.
The supermarket owner Juan Pio Paiva and his son Victor Daniel Paiva, accused of manslaughter, were held in preventive detention. Eyewitnesses said the son ordered supermarket guards to close doors to prevent people from leaving without paying.
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
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I'm interesting to know how is the situation now about the supermarket..
I will really apreciate your information ...
Thanks..
Posted by: Almudena on March 16, 2006 08:51 AMAlmudena, I haven't checked up on this story in a long time. I don't have any updates for you. Try searching http://news.google.com/ or local news websites.
Posted by: Drizz on March 17, 2006 01:21 PM