Prison Fire in Honduras

I'm sure many of you have already heard about the horrifying prison fire in Honduras. Reports are now claiming that the fire started after an inmate set fire to his mattress. Hundreds are already confirmed dead, and many are still missing (presumed dead). You can read the LA Times coverage here, and the New York Times here. AP reports state that firefighters claim they could not let prisoners out of their cells because they could not locate the keys. Was this pure incompetence? I'm not sure if the ensuing investigation promised by the Honduran president will clear things up.

A friend passed along an amateur video of the blaze posted on youtube that I could not help but watch (I am a victim, like most people, of morbid curiosity). I don't really recommend you watch the video (it was not too graphic but was still disturbing). What was most interesting to me was the video linked to it. Well, not the video, really, but the comments to the video. In the amateur video of the fire, the man behind the camera keeps repeating "dios santo" and "pobrecitos" ("my god"--"poor things"). He laments what he sees as the late response of the firefighters and the obvious gunshots echoing in the neighborhood. Bystanders speculate that perhaps a bomb had exploded. But the comments to the AP report of the incident, which the first video I mention is a response to, tell another story of anger and resentment towards prisoners that I have heard in Guatemala and El Salvador as well. The comments section on youtube and other anonymous forums often attracts so-called trolls and other rancorous individuals who what to stir up trouble or vent their venom. But this does not mean that there are not people out there who honestly feel the same way as those who posted on this particular comments section. Posts demonized the victims of the blaze. One (in Spanish) dismissed the incident as justice, saying that the prisoners were going to burn in hell anyway. People wrote about how rape victims and family members of murder victims would be celebrating, and there is serious confusion as to whether this particular prison were high security or not (as if it would be less of a tragedy if the victims were murderers and more of a tragedy if they were only thieves). I wonder, does it matter what crimes these prisoners were convicted of? Is the thought of burning to death locked in a prison cell less horrifying when the victims are convicted rapists and murderers?