Qualla: Locked Doors at 1:45 AM https://qualla.com/tangerang-prison-fire en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:27 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/q/q/g/u/tangerang-prison-fire-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Locked Doors at 1:45 AM https://qualla.com/tangerang-prison-fire Locked Doors at 1:45 AM: Introduction https://qualla.com/tangerang-prison-fire/ Photo credit Medcom.id, CC BY 3.0. Iyan Sofyan heard the screams first. It was 1:45 in the morning on 8 September 2021, and the prison employee was close enough to Sector C of the Tangerang Class I Correctional Facility to hear voices coming from behind the locked doors. A fire had started in section C2 -- a short circuit in electrical wiring that had not been upgraded since the prison was built in 1972. The sector had been designed to hold 38 inmates. That night, 122 people were locked inside. Sofyan and other wardens and guards managed to evacuate 20. The rest remained behind doors that protocol required to stay locked, in a building that lacked adequate fire extinguishers, inside a prison system that had been overcrowded for years. By the time the flames were out, 49 people were dead.

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Image: Medcom.id | CC BY 3.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/q/g/u/tangerang-prison-fire-wp/qqgu-locked-doors-at-1-45-am-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Locked Doors at 1:45 AM: Three Times Over Capacity https://qualla.com/tangerang-prison-fire/ Photo credit Medcom.id, CC BY 3.0. The Tangerang prison was not supposed to be this kind of place. Constructed in 1972 as a replacement for the old Glodok prison -- which had been sold to a private company -- the facility was inaugurated on 6 December 1982 and initially intended for white-collar criminals. That ch...

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Image: Medcom.id | CC BY 3.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/q/g/u/tangerang-prison-fire-wp/qqgu-locked-doors-at-1-45-am-three-times-over-capacity.mp3 0:06 2 full Locked Doors at 1:45 AM: Two Hours That Defined the Disaster https://qualla.com/tangerang-prison-fire/ Photo credit Medcom.id, CC BY 3.0. When the fire broke out in the early hours, the prison's own protocols became the mechanism of death. Inmates were kept in locked cells overnight -- standard procedure in Indonesian correctional facilities. As flames spread through Sector C2, wardens struggled with locks and door...

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Image: Medcom.id | CC BY 3.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/q/g/u/tangerang-prison-fire-wp/qqgu-locked-doors-at-1-45-am-two-hours-that-defined-the-disaster.mp3 0:06 3 full Locked Doors at 1:45 AM: Forty-Nine Lives https://qualla.com/tangerang-prison-fire/ Photo credit Medcom.id, CC BY 3.0. The initial count was 41 dead, with eight seriously injured and 73 more with lighter injuries. The wounded were taken to Sitanala Hospital and Tangerang Regency General Hospital. Over the following days, the number climbed. Three critically injured inmates died in hospital the ne...

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Image: Medcom.id | CC BY 3.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/q/g/u/tangerang-prison-fire-wp/qqgu-locked-doors-at-1-45-am-forty-nine-lives.mp3 0:06 4 full Locked Doors at 1:45 AM: Wiring from 1972 https://qualla.com/tangerang-prison-fire/ Photo credit Medcom.id, CC BY 3.0. The investigation pointed to a cause that surprised no one who knew the facility. Police determined the fire was caused by a short circuit in electrical wiring that dated to the prison's construction nearly five decades earlier. The wiring had never been upgraded. Fire extinguish...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/q/g/u/tangerang-prison-fire-wp/qqgu-locked-doors-at-1-45-am-wiring-from-1972.mp3 0:06 5 full