World Notes Disasters

One fire fighter described the scene as "Dantesque." The term was an apt one for the inferno that engulfed 410 patients in a six-story mental hospital in suburban Buenos Aires late last week. Said one witness: "Some patients leaped out of the windows, and we could hear them screaming. You could hear explosions as windows shattered." As choking, disoriented inmates fled into the streets, a nurse, wrapped in a mattress cover, reportedly jumped to her death from the top of the building. Federal police sources put the death toll at 79, but it could go higher. It was estimated that at least 247 people were injured in the three-hour blaze.

The fire appeared to have started on the upper floors of the St. Emiliene Neuropsychiatric Institute situated in the middle class neighborhood of Saavedra, nine miles from downtown Buenos Aires. Most of the patients were in bed when the blaze broke out, and some apparently were locked inside their rooms. Four young onlookers were credited with rescuing about twelve of the inmates. Criminal Court Judge Victor Pettigiani said that at least two people have been arrested in connection with the disaster.