Yohan Vassquez admits he is “lucky to be alive.”
For the last three years he has worked as a guard at a prison in the Chillian city of Chillan. Nothing could have prepared him for what happened the morning of the 8.8 mega quake.
Vassquez says he and the other 19 guards on duty were asleep when the tremor hit at 3:30 AM. Soon after awakened by the quake he discovered the inmates were on a rampage.
Cell doors had been jostled loose by the quake. Hundreds of the 760 inmates housed at the facility were free to roam the prison compound.. among them rapists and murderers held in maximum security.
According to Vassquez, although equipped with 9 millimeter revolvers, guards could not use the weapon unless an inmate was no longer on prison grounds. Instead, he says guards could only use a wooden baton or a shotgun loaded with non lethal rubber coated pellets.
The inmates, some armed with makeshift five foot spears, made it to the recreation yard. Three of the guard towers had collapsed along with large chunks of the perimeter wall.
Overwhelimg the guards, the prioners scalled a small wire fence and made it to freedom. After looting a nearby liquor store they burned it to the ground. Intoxicated by drink and freedom they returned to the prison releasing prisoners still behind bars.
Vassquez clutching his prison issued shotgun described how the “animals” then set fire to everything in their path. He says they burned their cells, administative office and even each other. Although the victim’s remains have been removed, a charred cell floor is a gruesome reminder of the torture that took place.
Durning the quake fueled riot four guards were injured and four inmates were killed. Of the 280 prisoners who escaped 130 are still on the loose.
The surrounding community lives in terror. The escapees are on a crime spree. Soon after their new found freedom the inmates burned the home of a family who lived near the prison.
Chile’s civillian and military police, already overwhelmed with looters and the ongoing aftershocks are desperately trying to capture the escapees.
Vassquez and the other guards who still work at the burned out prison remain on edge. Vengeful relatives of the inmates have vowed to completely destroy what is left of the prison.