Honduran President Porfirio Lobo announced Tuesday that he would pardon a prisoner who helped hundreds of others escape from a recent prison fire.

The fire broke out in Comayagua prison in Tegucigalpa last week, Killing about 360 prisoners.

Making the announcement during a cabinet meeting, the Honduran president asked Interior Minister Africo Madrid to analyze the case of Marco Antonio Bonilla Avila, also known as "El Chaparro" , and take the necessary measures to make the pardon take effect.

All the ministers at the cabinet meeting expressed support for Lobo's decision and wanted to provide Bonilla with a financial reward to support his 11 children.

Survivors of the ordeal said as the fire was spreading, Bonilla managed to get the keys to many cells and helped open the doors of cells for inmates to escape the fire.

"This is about the admirable in seeing how a person had the courage and didn't care about risking his own life in order to save that of many others and today we have seen how a lot of people managed to survive," said Andres Pavon, president of Honduras' Human Rights Defense Committee.

The medical authorities on Tuesday put the death toll from the fire at 360 after two prisoners died from injuries.