Tegucigalpa , Honduras ( CNN ) -- The death toll from a prison fire in central Honduras rose to 382 Thursday , as new details emerged about what happened when flames tore through the overcrowded facility . Officials transported bodies from the prison in Comayagua to the capital , Tegucigalpa , where investigators worked to identify the victims . The cause of the fire remained unknown , and the federal government asked for patience during its inquiry . But desperate families said they did n't want to wait to recover the remains of their loved ones . `` What we are hoping for is that they give them to us so we can leave because we can not stand the hunger , too , '' said Francisca Gomez , the sister of one of the victims . `` We have our children with us and you know that we 've been here waiting and no one gives us answers . '' The Comayagua fire department gave the new death toll , and said that it remained unknown if others escaped or would be added to the casualty list . The hypothesis that a mattress fire started the blaze was gaining traction , fire operations chief Jorge Turcios said Thursday . Comayagua 's governor said she received a call from an inmate inside the prison reporting the fire . `` What I know , according to what I 've been told , is that someone lit a mattress on fire and said , 'We 're all going to die , ' '' Gov . Paola Castro said . Inmates have also complained that guards were slow to open doors for them to escape . Prisoners broke out of the facility any way they could , one survivor said . `` The authorities should have opened the gates , '' said Odalis Aleyda Najera , a relative of a victim . `` It is preferable to face the responsibility for a mass escape of prisoners and avoid situations like this where there are more than 300 dead inmates . '' Outrage over the fire increased after the president of the country 's supreme court admitted that only 40 % of the inmates in the prison had been convicted . The majority were awaiting trial or waiting for charges to be filed against them . `` Honduras passed an anti-gang law , and what it allowed police to do is to sweep anybody off the streets ... who they had a suspicion was a member of a gang , but really had no proof . So the prison population swelled , '' said Vikki Gass of the Washington Office on Latin America . `` And so in the case of Comayagua , you do n't have enough magistrates or judges to process the people who are being detained . '' Authorities have not determined what caused the fire , but the nation 's electric utility will review wiring in all prison facilities as a `` preventative measure , '' Honduran President Porfirio Lobo said , `` because that can be one of the causes of these types of disasters . '' The prison facility was well over capacity , said Rodrigo Escobar Gil of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights . `` The prisoners slept on the floor and they had to share cells in truly deplorable conditions , '' he said . At the request of Honduran officials , arson experts from the United States were expected to arrive in Honduras Thursday to lend a hand , Turcios said . The team from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol , Tobacco , Firearms and Explosives ( ATF ) will reconstruct the scene , conduct interviews and sift through debris to obtain evidence and determine the origin of the blaze , the agency said in a statement . Teams from El Salvador , Chile and Mexico were also expected to help Honduran authorities . Tuesday night 's blaze was the third fatal prison fire in recent years in the country . In 2003 , 61 prisoners were killed in a fire at a prison in La Ceiba . In 2004 , 107 died in a fire at a San Pedro Sula prison . The U.S. State Department published a report last April criticizing conditions at Honduras ' 24 prisons . Prisoners `` suffered from severe overcrowding , malnutrition , and lack of adequate sanitation , '' the report said , citing human rights groups . CNN 's Carol Cratty , Brooke Baldwin and Camilo Egana contributed to this report .
NEW : A team from the ATF will help investigate the blaze . The government is focusing on transporting the bodies of the victims . The theory that a mattress fire started the blaze is gaining ground . Comment: