2023-05-22 23:37:34
Guyana
“Malicious” act suspected in the fire of a school dormitory
Nineteen “young people” died Sunday evening in Guyana in the possibly “malicious” fire of a school dormitory for girls in Mahdia, a landlocked mining town in this country.
Updated
The fire broke out in the girls’ dormitory where young people from “11-12 to 16-17 years old” live.
“This is a major disaster. It’s horrible, it’s painful, ”regrets President Irfaan Ali on Monday morning. Irfaan Ali, who declared three days of national mourning, went to the scene of the tragedy in the afternoon in the company of a large government delegation including the police chief. “We will continue to be by your side,” he told the families.
“Initial investigation suggests the fire was started maliciously,” Guyana Police Chief Clifton Hicken said during a televised briefing in Mahdia. However, he did not expand on the possible reasons but said “that DNA tests” were carried out and that six bodies had been autopsied.
“Fourteen young people died on the spot, while five died at the district hospital of Mahdia”, according to a press release from the firefighters published in the morning.
The president confirmed these figures in the afternoon, stressing that a little boy and 13 young girls had died on the spot and that five people had died in the hospital of Mahdia. According to the new report, 17 people are still hospitalized. A previous assessment, given by the government, reported “20 dead” in the fire of the “dormitory of the secondary school of Mahdia”.
The authorities have also reviewed the figures concerning the people present: according to the new report 59 young girls were “registered” in the dormitory but three were absent to spend the weekend at home.
“Firefighters managed to save about 20 students by drilling holes in the northeast wall of the building,” according to the firefighters’ statement. The windows of the concrete building had security bars. Evacuations by plane and medical reinforcements were made difficult by heavy rains, the emergency services said.
The city of Mahdia is located about 200 km south of Georgetown but the journey by car is on a track and usually lasts a day.
The fire broke out in the girls’ dormitory where young people from “11-12 to 16-17 years old live”, said on condition of anonymity a person who accompanied the emergency services on the spot. The building is completely charred with walls blackened by the flames. The tin roof collapsed.
“In-Depth Investigation”
“We need to be compensated for our losses,” read a sign. “Bars are for inmates. We need justice,” according to another poster.
“The pain, the agony, the trauma… who will be held responsible? What are we going to tell the parents? said Michael McGarrell, an activist with the NGO Amerindian People’s Association (APA), often at odds with the government over land rights, gold panning and, more recently, the sale of carbon credits to the oil company American Hess.
“Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those affected by this tragedy,” said Natasha Singh-Lewis, Opposition MP. “We call on the authorities to carry out a thorough investigation into the causes of the fire and to provide a detailed report on what really happened. We must understand how this horrific and deadly event happened and take all necessary measures to prevent such a tragedy from happening again in the future,” she added.
A small poor English-speaking country of 800,000 inhabitants, Guyana, a former Dutch and then British colony, has the largest per capita oil reserves in the world and hopes for rapid development in the years to come with the exploitation of these reserves which is still in progress. at its beginnings.
Specialists estimate that the Guyana-Suriname basin contains around 15 billion barrels of oil reserves associated with significant gas deposits.
(AFP)
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