Where there’s smoke: how journalists reconstructed a deadly fire in a Mexican detention center

By Melissa del Bosque & Jack Sapoch, Lighthouse Reports.

In March 2023, a fire tore through a locked cell inside a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, killing 40 men and injuring 27 others. It was the deadliest fire in a government immigration facility in Mexico’s history. Officials claimed that the fire was a tragic accident, that the guard with the key to the cell wasn’t present when the flames broke out. Our investigation set out to test that claim.

Smoke and Lies – a visual investigation led by Lighthouse Reports in partnership with La Verdad in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso Matters in Texas – used visual forensics, leaked government documents and survivor testimony to reconstruct the fire and explain why it was so deadly. We found a system of institutional indifference and negligence underlying the incident: the key was never missing, exits were blocked and fire extinguishers inside the center were missing or defective. Officials stood by even as smoke filled the cell and men suffocated to death.

The project came together over the course of nine months and involved sifting through hundreds of hours of CCTV footage, analyzing thousands of leaked government documents and conducting interviews with survivors. 

Our partners at La Verdad were instrumental in obtaining leaked CCTV footage from inside the detention center. These videos, captured from 15 different security cameras, became the backbone of the investigation. The sheer volume of video was daunting. Each camera recorded continuously for more than 16 hours. Our first task was to organize and comb through the footage, identifying the key moments leading up to, during and after the fire.

In parallel, we began work on a 3D model of the detention center. Using Blender, an open-source modeling software, we recreated the architecture of the facility based on floor plans, walkthrough videos and reference photos. This spatial reconstruction allowed us to map movements of staff, detainees and key objects like fire extinguishers and door keys with precision. We also projected the CCTV footage onto camera-matched viewpoints within the model, letting us analyze the timing and positions of people in ways that wouldn’t have been possible using flat video alone.

A major breakthrough with these recordings actually came near the end of our production when we discovered that several of the CCTV feeds actually contained embedded audio that was initially hidden through the proprietary format the center used. After some experimentation with playback software, we were able to listen to recordings of phone calls between National Institute of Migration staff during the early moments of the fire. In one section of audio, an immigration agent can be heard instructing others not to open the cell door — contradicting the officials’ claims. This became a powerful focus for La Verdad which headlined its story with the agent’s own words: “A ellos no lo vamos a abrir” (We’re not going to open it for them).

The document analysis was another major lift for the team. We gained access to more than 20,000 pages of forensic reports, interview transcripts and internal memos. At the beginning, we had not expected to get access to the government’s investigative files into the tragedy. 

Suddenly, we had the fortunate challenge of figuring out how to navigate the huge amount of evidence. To make sense of it, we used Google Pinpoint, which allowed us to keyword search across the entire archive and tag material relevant to our timeline and spatial model.

One major goal for the investigative team was identifying what happened to the key to the men’s cell during the fire. Even Mexico’s president at the time, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said during an April 2023 press conference that the cell could not be opened because the guard with the key was not there when the fire broke out. 

Piecing together hours of surveillance footage, we identified who had the keys and when. Through the visual reconstruction of employee movements before, during and after the fire, we could document that the keys were present at the facility during the deadly fire, and were only produced after firefighters had already broken into the cell to free the few remaining survivors.

Throughout the investigation, we remained in close contact with survivors in Mexico and the United States. Their testimonies not only helped us cross-check events captured on video, but also grounded the work in the experience of those affected. These conversations informed our editorial decisions, particularly around what footage to show and how to frame the visual narrative with dignity and care.

Publishing the story led to widespread attention, both in Mexico and internationally. Eleven individuals, including federal immigration officials and private security staff have been charged in connection with the fire. Mexican lawmakers cited our findings during Senate hearings. Families of the victims used the investigation to push for further accountability and legal action.

Smoke and Lies was a tremendous undertaking and a powerful example of what investigative journalism can do when newsrooms join forces across borders and share their expertise and skill sets. Unfortunately, two years after the fire, there has still not been a trial or justice for the families of those who died or for the survivors. The investigation provided powerful evidence that the government was negligent, but we still don’t know who ultimately gave the fateful order that night to the guards not to open the men’s cell.