6 May 2012

Fatal fire at drug clinic

4:56 am on 6 May 2012

Fourteen people died in a fire after being trapped behind locked doors and barred windows in a drug rehabilitation centre in Peru on Saturday.

The fire was at the Sacred Heart of Jesus centre, a two-storey building in the Chosica district, 30km east of the capital, Lima.

There was only one survivor.

Fire chief Fernando Campos said 14 bodies had been counted - 13 on the second floor and one on the first floor.

He said firefighters had to use tools to break into the building, as the the main door was padlocked.

The blaze began at around 4am (local time) when a patient set fire to a mattress on the second floor.

Firefighters took two hours to bring it under control.

It's the second such tragedy in Peru this year: 27 people died in January when a fire swept through another drug clinic.