LIMA:A fire killed 14 people trapped in a locked down drug rehabilitation center east of Lima with no means of escape, the city's fire department said Saturday.

“They have found 14 bodies and one person survived,” said spokeswoman Elena Cabello of the fire in Chosica, 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of the capital.

The blaze comes just three months after 29 people were killed in a fire at another drug rehabilitation center in Lima.

The latest fire broke in the early morning hours at the Sacred Heart of Jesus rehabilitation center, which was housed in a two-story building, said Fernando Campos, the head of the firefighting unit on the scene.

“The doors were locked and the windows on the second floor had bars on them. It wasn't possible for people to get out,” said Campos. He said 13 bodies were found on the second floor of the building and one on the first floor. The cause of the fire was unknown.

“I am alive thanks to God,” said Luis Zeballo, the sole surviver of the disaster, who told reporters he smelled smoke early in morning while residents of the drug rehabilitation center were sleeping.

Chosica Mayor Luis Bueno suggested that the fire may have been linked to a fight that reportedly had broken out earlier among the residents.

Bueno said inspectors had been to the center several months earlier, and had noted nothing unusual, but he said it was up to the federal government to better regulate the country's many private, often unlicensed drug rehabilitation centers.

Drug prevention group CEDRO says there are about 260 such centers around the country, but only 20 percent of them are licensed and have personnel trained to deal with alcoholics and drug addicts.

State-run facilities have only 700 beds for an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 people dependent on drugs, according to CEDRO.