Update: Deaths in Mexico day-care fire rise to 40 children
Pastor Dale Morgan
Update: Deaths in Mexico day-care fire rise to 40 children*
By Alonso Castillo
Reuters
Sunday, June 7, 2009 1:04 AM
HERMOSILLO, Mexico (Reuters) - The death toll from a fire at a daycare
center in northern Mexico rose to 40 children with 23 more hospitalized,
many with life-threatening burns, Mexican authorities said on Saturday.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon ordered an investigation into Friday's
fire at the ABC daycare center in the northern city of Hermosillo to
find who is to blame and later visited hospitals where survivors were
being treated.
Three additional children have died and more seriously burned victims
remained in the hospital, Health Minister Raymundo Lopez told reporters
late Saturday.
"Unfortunately, fifteen of them are in danger of losing their lives over
the next few hours," Lopez said.
As flames blocked the center's doorway, employees and neighbors used
cars to punch holes through a wall and stumbled over unconscious infants
and toddlers as they tried to rescue them, witnesses said.
Smoke inhalation killed many children before rescuers could reach them,
with the victims ranging in age from a few months old to about 3 years
old, authorities said. It was unclear where or how the fire started,
although it may have broken out in a nearby warehouse or a tire
workshop, the government said.
"According to what our people saw, there was an explosion followed
immediately by flames," said Daniel Karam, head of the Mexican agency
responsible for health care and social security.
Crying family and friends buried three children in small gray coffins
and another 10 funerals were set to be held simultaneously on Sunday.
The city of about 700,000 people is located 170 miles south of the
border with the U.S. state of Arizona.
Calderon said he was rushing medical assistance to overwhelmed medical
staff in Hermosillo, including air ambulances and specialists in
reconstructive surgery.
"I have ordered the attorney general, along with local authorities ...
to investigate as soon as possible to find out exactly what happened and
identify whoever may be responsible," Calderon said earlier on Saturday
in Quintana Roo state.
More than 140 children were in the ABC daycare center when the fire
broke out, Karam told reporters. Karam said the center had passed its
last government inspection in May.
Six adults also were hospitalized in less serious condition after the
fire, authorities said.
A 3-year-old girl was flown to the Shriners children's hospital in
Sacramento, California, which specializes in burns, and another was due
to be sent, the hospital said.
"Our burn team here has been working all night with the medical
professionals in Mexico to triage these patients, on the phone," said
Shriners spokeswoman Catherine Curran.
Some of the children were too unstable to transport to other hospitals,
Lopez said.
(Additional reporting and writing by Noel Randewich; Editing by Doina
Chiacu)