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Higüey Prison fire

2005 fire in the Dominican Republic

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ5760195 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Higüey Prison fire occurred on March 7, 2005, at Higüey Prison in Higüey, Dominican Republic.

The prison was claimed to be overcrowded at the time of the fire, housing 400 inmates but designed to house only 180. In all, 136 prisoners died. Among those killed was Edwin Adams Cotto.

The fire's cause was variously attributed to an inmate riot, guards firing tear gas, or a prisoner setting fire to a mattress.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Higüey Prison fire” as 2005 fire in the Dominican Republic. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Higüey, Prison and fire.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2005—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Higüey, Prison and fire providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Higüey Prison fire”, the useful work is to connect “2005 fire in the Dominican Republic” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5760195. Authority coordinates are 18.614, -68.714. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2005.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Higüey Prison fire”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Higüey Prison fire primary sources, Higüey Prison fire archive and Higüey research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Higüey Prison fire”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Higüey Prison fire” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.