A supervisor at a migrant center in Juarez, Mexico allegedly ordered guards not to open locked cell doors “under any circumstance” as flames and smoke spread during a fire that killed 39 last week, according to media reports.

“Leave them alone, and get out of the station,” Juarez Attorney Jorge Vazquez Campbell said he had been told was the supervisor’s mandate. “With that, the whole thing started burning up and killing them”, he explained to Border Report.

Footage of the guards fleeing the center and abandoning men under lock and key surfaced hours after images of dozens of charred bodies made headlines around the world.

Several agents and guards sought Vasquez’s legal counsel a day after the tragedy for fear they would be blamed, the publication reported.

Vasquez also submitted a sworn statement with the government that points to the regional director of the National Migration Institute (INM) who directed guards “not to open the doors under any circumstance.”

The blaze started March 27 when at least one migrant being held at a National Migration Institute (INM) detention center, located less than one mile from the US-Mexico border, ignited stacked mattresses in protest at learning he would be deported from Mexico.

The migrant, who survived the fire with only minor injuries, is among six people who were ordered arrested last week. The others include three National Immigration Institute officials and two security guards.

“They are remiss in having abandoned (the migrants). They were cowards, but they did not have the keys,” the lawyer said of the guards, which included private contractors.

“The government must conduct a professional investigation regardless of who is involved. They cannot point to security guards making $50 a week and blame them for everything.”

Vasquez claims only one INM agent had keys to the cells and there were no fire extinguishers at the center.

The one guard with a key was able to free 15 migrant women, who escaped the flames unharmed.

“If they could let out the women, why did they not let out the men?” Vasquez asked.

The Juarez lawyer called on federal prosecutors to review phone records of INM officials the night of the fire.

He also alleged corruption at the jail — asking how the migrant could start a fire in the first place when guards are supposed to confiscate matches and lighters when people arrive at the facility.

Vazquez said migrants have accused INM staff of “selling” them cigarettes and matches in the past.

A further 29 migrants were also injured, with 10 remaining in serious or critical condition on ventilators at Juarez hospitals.

Mexican officials have declined a US offer to treat the wounded at hospitals directly across the border in El Paso, Texas.