Cousins! A deadly fire in Georgetown has tragically claimed the lives of 19 most girl students ultimately trapped within the dormitory area of a Guyana located school.
According to NBC News, the entire ordeal began after a teenage girl’s cellphone was confiscated on Tuesday May 23rd. It has been stated that student was facing disciplinary action by a dorm administrator following the discovery that she had been engaging with an older male. Charges for statutory rape for the unidentified male are also underway as the teen is only 16 years old.
Reports read that she had threatened to torch the building after her phone had been taken away. She is said to have later set a fire within a bathroom. It wasn’t long before the fire traveled through the wood as well as the concrete frame and of the building. Officials has discovered that the dorm administrator also known as the school’s house mother is said to have locked the doors for the night in efforts of keeping the girls from sneaking out.
“She did this out of love for them. She felt she was forced to do so because many of them leave the building at night to socialize,” said National Security Adviser Gerald Gouveia. “This is a very sad situation, but the state is going to work with the students and the families to provide all the support they need.”
Though firefighters were able to save some of the victims by breaking holes through the walls, many of them were fatally trapped. “The house mother was asleep at the time inside the building but panicked and could not find the right keys to unlock the building from inside, but she made it out. She also lost her five-year-old child in the fire,” says Gouveia.
A total of nine people are currently hospitalized and are listed within critical condition. The suspect is among several injured people that survived.
Officials are currently working on flying in specialist to help identify 13 of the 19 deceased victims through their DNA.
“Leaders from all over the world have been offering to help us at this time. They were calling and messaging President Ali (Irfaan) while he was on the ground in Madhia on Monday,” states Gouveia.
Deputy Fire Chief Dwayne Scotland declares that more lives could’ve been saved if officials had been properly notified about the fire quicker. It has been stated that as firefighters arrived to the scene, residents had already been attempting to stop the fire on their own However they were ultimately unsuccessfull.
“The building was well engulfed,” he said.
Reports read that all but one of the victims were Indigenous girls ages 12 to 18 that had traveled from remote villages served by the boarding school in Mahdia.
At this current time the teen has admitted to the deadly arson attack and is in police custody as authorities seek legal advice of if they are going to charge her for the 19 children killed.