LONDON, Feb 16: Thirteen asylum seekers still unaccounted for two days after a huge fire swept through a detention centre in southeastern England may have perished in the fire, police said on Saturday.

“We hope that they will all be traced and found safe, but there is a possibility that they may not have escaped and obviously we cannot rule out that they could have died,” the Bedfordshire police said.

The fire, at the Yarl’s Wood centre near Bedford, broke out Thursday evening when 370 refugees were staying at the centre. As the building continued to blaze, 28 refugees escaped from the premises although police said that 15 had since been arrested.

The fire completely destroyed two of the centre’s buildings and caused some 38 million pounds (62 million euros, 55 million dollars) worth of damage.

The centre houses refugees who have had their claims for asylum turned down and are awaiting deportation.

Separate enquiries have been opened by police and immigration services as well as by the Group Four company which runs the centre.

Witnesses told refugee organisations that the blaze had started during a demonstration by inmates over the alleged ill treatment of a 55 year-old woman refugee.

Criticism of safety procedures at the centre has come from union representatives, with Ed Blissett, a union official at the site, saying that there were not enough staff in the building and that those who were there were not properly trained.

During a visit to the centre Friday, Immigration Minister Lord Rooker criticised the fact that it did not contain an automatic sprinkler system, as regional fireman had claimed.

The asylum seekers have since been transferred to other buildings at the site or to other detention centres.

The Yarl’s Wood centre, on a former ministry of defence base, was given over last year to the housing of 900 people.

It is one of three new centres opened by the Home Office to speed up the removal of asylum seekers whose applications have failed.—AFP