By Brad Haynes
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Fire engulfed a prison in the Chilean capital early on Wednesday, killing 81 inmates and critically injuring 14 others, the government said, in the country's third-deadliest blaze ever.
Officials said the fire was deliberately started during an early-morning brawl between inmates in one of the crowded prison's five towers. Television footage showed part of the San Miguel prison in flames, billowing with black smoke, before the blaze was put out by firefighters.
Hundreds of frantic relatives of the inmates flooded to the prison gates, screaming their family members' names and imploring police to tell them who had survived. Officials later began informing the families of those killed.
"It is a hugely painful tragedy," President Sebastian Pinera said. "We cannot guarantee the number of dead will not rise." A regional governor said the official estimate was 81, down slightly after clarifying a hospital report.
When officials read an initial list of confirmed survivors by megaphone, relatives responded with agonized wails, assuming that those not included were dead. Hundreds of grieving family members surged against barricades, raining rocks and glass bottles on police and officials.
"Desperation does this to people," said Luz Mira, whose son is serving a five-year sentence in the prison. "Things are happening in this prison all the time. Imagine so many people stuffed in together."
Justice Minister Felipe Bulnes said the prison housed 1,960 inmates, nearly twice the 1,100 inmate capacity.
"There were only five officers and one paramedic on guard inside the jail," said Arturo Sandoval, president of a union of prison employees. "This tragedy was inevitable and another could happen tomorrow in any prison in this country given the overpopulation of more than 100 percent."
State television reported that a recent audit of the San Miguel prison condemned overcrowded and understaffed conditions. A spokesman for firefighters said they were alerted to the fire by a cellphone call from within the jail.
"We cannot keep living with a prison system which is absolutely inhumane," Pinera said. "We are going to speed up the process to ensure our country has a humane, dignified prison system that befits a civilized country."
The president said it was the third-worst fire Chile has ever suffered and the worst-ever accident in the country's jail system.
Chile's deadliest blaze occurred in 1863, also on December 8, when more than 2,000 people died in a burning church in the capital. Within weeks, volunteers founded Chile's first corps of firefighters.
SERIES OF ACCIDENTS
Wednesday's fire is also the latest in a string of disasters and accidents to hit Chile this year, including a devastating February earthquake and ensuing tsunamis and a mine collapse that trapped 33 miners underground for two months.
Waves of families arrived at the prison throughout the morning as they got word of the dawn blaze. Wednesday is visiting day, so many families had already planned trips to the prison.
After hours of uncertainty, distressed relatives began climbing onto the prison fence, screaming a chorus of inmates' names at barred windows blackened with smoke. Some prisoners waved their arms and T-shirts through the bars.
"Rusio Victor -- wave a white T-shirt, Daddy!" shouted 7-year-old Yadira Lopez as she hung from the fence, eager for a sign of life from her father.
For some, there was relief.
Gonzalo Sepulveda wept after managing to contact his brother Cristian.
"I'd die if something happened to him," Sepulveda said. "Those aren't animals they have in there. They are human beings who have made mistakes."
(With reporting by Antonio de la Jara, Maria Jose Latorre, Alonso Soto and Simon Gardner; Editing by Eric Beech)