AT least 20 youths were killed in a schoolgirls’ dormitory blaze in Guyana, officials said Monday, with anger growing in the tiny South American country over the tragedy.
It is not yet known how the fire started Sunday in a dormitory housing girls aged 11-12 and 16-17, a person who helped the emergency services said under condition of anonymity.
The building was gutted by the inferno.
“Fourteen youths died at the scene, while six died at the Mahdia District Hospital,” said the fire department in a statement.
The government had previously said 20 people died in the blaze at the Mahdia Secondary School in central Guyana.
Guyana, with a population of 800,000, is the only English-speaking country of South America. It is a former Dutch and British colony which recently discovered it holds the world’s largest per capita oil reserves.
After the weekend tragedy, more than a dozen children received hospital treatment locally while six serious cases were airlifted to the capital Georgetown.
“Two children remain in critical condition, while four are nursing severe injuries as a result of the incident,” added the fire brigade.
There were 63 pupils inside the building when the fire broke out.
“This is a major disaster. It is horrible, it is painful,” President Irfaan Ali said on Sunday night.
Ali said he had ordered arrangements to be made in Georgetown’s two major hospitals “so that every single child who requires attention be given the best possible opportunity to get that attention.”
