It was the deadliest prison fire yet in the Dominican Republic, where the U.S. State Department says some overcrowded and bug-infested jails are run by armed inmates.
Only 26 prisoners were rescued from the public jail in Higuey, 75 miles (120 kilometers) northeast of the capital on eastern tip of the island, said National Police Chief Manuel de Jesus Perez Sanchez.
He said four suffered bullet wounds, but had no details.
Firefighter chief Nestor Vera said three gangs battling over who would sell drugs and cigarettes had blocked the entrance to the cellblock in order to fight it out, before some of them started the fire.
''It's an incredible, mad thing,'' Vera said. ''When we arrived, the door was blocked with the rubble from mattresses and wood beds the prisoners had used to seal the exit shut.'' They also damaged the padlock, he said, preventing a swift rescue.
Bodies were ''piled up on top of each other'' at the door, he said, apparently as the men struggled to escape.
Rescuers pulled 133 bodies from the block, Perez Sanchez said. Many were charred, but many of the men died from inhaling smoke, Vera said.
''It's unlikely any new bodies will appear because the rescuers have already removed all the rubble,'' said national prison director Gen. Ramon de la Cruz Martinez.
He said army helicopters had ferried the injured to hospitals in the capital, Santo Domingo.
Among them was Jose Pichard Silverio, who suffered minor burns to his arms and face. ''The problem began because there were two Higuey people who wanted to control the prison and were extorting 1,000 pesos (US$25) from each of us,'' Pichardo Silverio said from a corridor of Luis Eduardo Aybar Hospital, where he waited to be treated.
Also among victims were four Americans from Puerto Rico convicted of cocaine trafficking along with television personality Laura Hernandez. Two died and two were wounded, officials said.
The violence began when inmate Jose Manuel Hernandez Mota shot and wounded a rival gang member Sunday night and dozens of prisoners began fighting over who would control the prisoners, de la Cruz Martinez said.
Guards broke up that fight. But about 12:30 a.m. many prisoners began rioting, setting fire to pillows and sheets, Diaz said.
Earlier, officials had said that there were 148 prisoners in the cellblock, though the toll of dead and injured totaled 159. The discrepancy was an indicator of prison conditions in the Dominican Republic, which has the most overcrowded jails in the Western Hemisphere, according to U.N. figures, leading a list of places where inmate populations have grown far beyond capacity while penitentiaries crumble from neglect.
Gang fights, escapes and riots are frequent at prisons across the region.
Human rights groups say about 70 percent of prisoners are awaiting trial, some for than two years.
The Dominican Republic's 35 prisons were built for 9,000 prisoners but last year held more than 13,500, according to the annual human rights report of the U.S. State Department, published last week.
Three prisoners burned to death in August in the central town of Mao, during another riot over control of the drug trade in that prison.
In the worst other fire, 30 inmates died in September 2002 when prisoners in La Vega town set fire to mattresses at the prison. It was built for 50 inmates but was holding 600 men when the fire raged through two cells.
Last month, a fire from an electrical shortage in the largest prison in Santo Domingo left one prisoner dead.
