Fatal blaze at children's home in Guatemala

Indy Anna

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Oscar Franco, a spokesman for the volunteer firefighters, told local media: "At least 25 people were injured and transferred to hospitals and we have confirmed 19 bodies."

All those who died were aged between 14 and 17.
Read more at ... http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-39208309


The national police department said 38 people were injured and the country’s Health Ministry said 14 were in serious condition with severe burns. Dr. Carlos Soto, director of the Roosevelt Hospital where some were being treated, said the most severe cases, all apparently girls, suffered life-threatening burns.

[...]

The shelter, known as the Virgin of the Assumption Safe Home, has been criticized for overcrowding, alleged abuse and escapes in the past. While it was built to house 500 children and adolescents, it held an estimated 800 at the time of the fire.
Read more at ... https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...724d48f5666_story.html?utm_term=.184e523856c5
 
A fire swept through the female section of a crowded children’s shelter near Guatemala City early Wednesday and officials said at least 20 girls died and dozens more were injured.

[...]

Then on Wednesday, about 9 a.m., “Some of the adolescents lit their mattresses on fire,” Rodas said. “We don’t shirk responsibility, we accept it, but we can’t get those lives back.”

[...]

In 2013, a 14-year-old girl was murdered at the facility. Investigators said the girl was strangled by one of the other residents.
Read more at ... http://www.cbsnews.com/news/deadly-fire-child-shelter-guatemala-city/
 
The blaze was believed to have started during an overnight rebellion in the packed center, which holds nearly double the 400 people it was designed to house.

"They were serving food to the teenagers when some of them started a fire in a mattress and that's how the fire was set," said Abner Paredes, a prosecutor defending children's rights.

[...]

"It was a ticking time bomb. This was to be expected," one of the center's former employees, Angel Cardenas, said outside.

He said he had lodged several warnings about conditions inside.
Read more at ... http://www.news18.com/news/india/gu...ome-blaze-kills-20-teenage-girls-1357895.html
 
A 15-year-old girl being treated for minor injuries at Roosevelt Hospital said the uprising followed rumors of an escape attempt. Some boys, or even young men who were still housed at the center after turning 18, entered the girls’ area, she said. She said she fled to her dormitory’s roof with others fearing the boys would attack them.

[...]

Attorney General Annabella Morfin said children in a protective situation should not be housed with children who have problems with the law and called for an investigation of those responsible.
Read more at ... http://www.cbsnews.com/news/deadly-fire-child-shelter-guatemala-city/

According to this article, the death toll is now at 22. :(
 
Jorge de Leon, Guatemala's human rights prosecutor, said in a statement that at least 102 children had been located after escaping from the shelter and more had managed to flee. De Leon said younger children fled the shelter because they were being abused by the elder children.

"According to what they say, the bigger kids have control and they attack them constantly," de Leon wrote. "They also complain that food is scarce and of poor quality."
Read more at ... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap...say-19-dead-fire-Guatemala-child-shelter.html

Nothing new really at DM, but has lots of pics. Wish there were some of the building and fire.
Difficult seeing the grieving relatives and those anxiously awaiting word of their loved ones. Condolences to the families of the deceased and injured. Wishing the injured a full recovery.
 
Guatemala's president called for a restructuring of his country's youth shelter system following a fire that killed at least 37 people, all or most of them girls, at an overcrowded government facility for children, while grieving families began receiving the bodies of their loved ones.

[...]

The flames swept through the female section of the facility where some of the girls had been locked inside a dormitory after an escape attempt.
Read more at ... http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/guatemala-investigation-shelter-fire-1.4018914

One girl said a group of girls attempted to escape after being raped. They were placed in a locked area where they set fire to mattresses in protest. I hope a thorough investigation ensues, resulting in criminal charges and drastic changes being made to the country's youth shelter system. Sadly, some of the children housed there were already victims of abuse, and they were housed with youthful offenders. :(
 
Guatemalan authorities arrested three former child welfare officials Monday who were responsible for overseeing a youth shelter where 40 girls died from a fire.

Prosecutor’s spokeswoman Julia Barrera confirmed the detentions of Social Welfare Secretary Carlos Rodas, Deputy Secretary Anahi Keller and shelter director Santos Torres on suspicion of homicide, mistreatment of minors and failure to fulfill duty.
more at ... http://www.cbsnews.com/news/guatemala-youth-shelter-fire-three-former-officials-arrested/


Guatemala’s minister for social welfare, Carlos Rodas, offered his resignation Monday after a blaze in a government-run children's shelter killed 40 teenage girls.

In his letter to President Jimmy Morales, Rodas said he was handing in his notice in order to "contribute to the objective investigation into the tragedy."
more at ... http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Guatemala-minister-resigns-over-fire-that-killed-40
 
Those poor girls. They're sent to a shelter where they're supposed to be protected from abuse, and are abused again. And, then, trying to escape the abuse leads to this.
Nine survivors of a fire that raged through a Guatemalan shelter for abused teenagers last week have been flown to the U.S. for treatment for their severe burns.
[...]
Dr. Jong Lee, medical director of the Burn Intensive Care Unit at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Galveston, spoke with Newsweek after five-and-a-half hours in surgery treating one of the center’s victims. The four girls in Galveston, all of whom Lee describes as “adolescents,” have third degree burns and three of them require skin grafts.
[...]
The other three are receiving care in Boston. Two additional shelter residents were flown to the organization’s hospital in Cincinnati this week.
more at ... http://www.newsweek.com/guatemala-children-shelter-fire-survivors-usa-treatment-568501

Shriners Hospitals for Children is paying all of the medical expenses.:heartbeat:
 

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