Home > Death Toll in Paraguay Blaze Reaches 464
By DEBORA REY
The death toll from a supermarket blaze soared by more than 100 to reach 464 Tuesday, as a security guard told investigators he was ordered to lock the building’s doors to prevent theft just after the fire began.
Dozens of families were still searching for lost loved ones as investigators questioned the store’s owners, manager and security guards over reports that doors were locked, trapping shoppers inside during Sunday’s fire, the worst disaster in decades in this impoverished South American country.
The attorney general’s office put the death toll at 464, saying 325 bodies had been identified and 139 others still had not. Officials also said 409 people remained hospitalized.
The blaze broke out during lunch hour at the three-story supermarket in a suburb of Asuncion, the capital. Flames quickly spread through the Ycua Bolanos supermarket, food court and parking garage, causing a floor to collapse. Officials say they are checking reports an exploding gas canister could have started the flames.
Prosecutor Edgar Sanchez, who is leading the investigation, said a security guard told authorities that at the outset of the fire he received orders over a radio to lock the doors to prevent theft.
Sanchez said the guard "didn’t know" who gave the order. "He couldn’t identify the voice that spoke to him over the radio," the prosecutor said.
The store’s owners, a business associate and four security guards have been taken into custody for questioning. Judicial authorities said they also ordered a freeze on the assets of Juan Pio Paiva, who owns the supermarket with his son.
Pio Paiva dismissed speculation that the doors had been deliberately locked to prevent looting and said the building met safety codes.
But officials said they were trying to piece together survivor claims that locked doors might have impeded or slowed shoppers trying to escape.
As funerals and burials were held across the capital, the mood remained edgy. Authorities evacuated a second Asuncion supermarket Tuesday after reports of a gas leak.
At the site of the fire, firefighters and others continued searching for victims in the rose-colored building, which was cordoned off by yellow police tape and guarded by rifle-toting soldiers.
Nearby, some families were trying to locate the bodies of relatives missing and believed dead.
Dozens of family members gathered to look over badly burned bodies. Others held up photographs, hoping rescue workers might recognize them.
"I’m looking for my mother! Where is she?" shouted a sobbing Carlos Montiel. Unable to identify her among the bodies, he frantically yelled a description of her: "She’s tall, brown, and has black hair.
"I’ve looked everywhere and nobody knows anything about her," he said.
One woman, Blanca Valinotti, said she believed her 25-year-old daughter Nidia had died in the blaze but had not seen her name on a list of victims circulated by authorities.
"I’ve given up all hope," she said. "I know she’s dead but at least I want to find the body. I need to know what happened to her."
Dozens of volunteer psychologists circulated among the crowd hoping to console relatives, and forensic experts urged some of them to take blood tests and bring dental records and X-rays to help identify victims. ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP)