At least 19 “young people” died in Guyana in the fire of a girls’ school dormitory in Mahdia, a landlocked mining town in this small country in northeastern South America, overnight from Sunday to Monday .
“Fourteen young people died on the spot, while five died at the Mahdia district hospital. Two children remain in critical condition, while four suffer serious injuries,” according to a statement from firefighters on Monday.
These six injured “were transferred by plane to Georgetown”, the capital, while “five others are still hospitalized in Mahdia and ten others are under observation”, according to the same source.
A previous report, given by the government a little earlier, reported “20 dead” in the fire at the “Mahdia secondary school dormitory”, in the center of the country.
The fire, whose origin is not known, broke out in the girls’ dormitory where young people from “11-12 to 16-17 years old live”, specified on condition of anonymity a person who accompanied the help on site. The building is completely charred with walls blackened by the flames. The tin roof collapsed.
The government said five planes took off for Mahdia to help regional health officials provide additional medical supplies and carry out medical evacuations.
“The President and other officials are supporting efforts at Ogle (Georgetown Airport) to accommodate patients in critical condition and coordinate an emergency response plan,” the same source said.
“A large-scale medical emergency action plan has been launched”, according to the text which “asks to continue to pray for these children, their families and their communities”.
“This is a major disaster. It’s horrible, it’s painful,” President Irfaan Ali had previously declared from the airport where he had gone to wait for help.
“In-depth investigation”
“We are setting up large-scale medical relief […] I also ordered that special arrangements be made “in the two major hospitals in the capital” so that every child who needs attention receives the best possible care,” he added.
A security source told AFP on condition of anonymity that there were “many dead and injured”, stressing that the victims were “children”.
Mahdia is located about 200 km south of Georgetown. The region is affected by heavy rains.
“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 world’s largest per capita oil reserves and hopes for rapid development in the years to come with the exploitation of these reserves which is still at his beginnings.
Specialists estimate that the Guyana-Suriname basin contains around 15 billion barrels of oil reserves associated with significant gas deposits.