An evidently angry student who lost phone privileges at school allegedly started a dormitory fire in Georgetown, Guyana. Mahdia Secondary School burned to the ground Sunday, killing at least 19 students. A 14-year-old girl reportedly started the fire after the doors were locked for the evening, consequently trapping students inside.
The alleged teenage arsonist was reportedly in a relationship with an older man and threatened to torch the school if school officials took her phone away. The student survived the blaze but is currently hospitalized and recovering from burn-related injuries she received during the fire, the New York Post reported. Law enforcement will transfer her to a juvenile center when doctors release her from the hospital, Leslie Ramsammy, an advisor to the health ministry, told the Associated Press.
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The house mother locked the doors for the students' safety that night.
In addition to locked doors, the windows on the door were barred, which prevented many of the students killed in the fire from escaping. These were all safety measures the school put into place. They were never intended to trap the girls inside. National Security Advisor Gerald Gouveia told AP the dorm mother was trying to protect the girls, not harm them.
"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," Gouveia told the Associated Press. "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."
Firefighters tried to get the students out as quickly as possible.
Despite taking extreme measures to rescue the trapped girls, firefighters could not rescue them all. AP reported they were able to save some lives by creating holes in the walls.
"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," Gouveia said, per AP.
Most of the fire's victims were Indigenous girls.
According to AP, many girls were Indigenous and ages 12 to 18, hailing from remote villages but living at the school in Mahdia, near the Brazil border. Tragically, one of the victims was the 5-year-old son of the house mother.
Nine people saved from the blaze are in the hospital, and most are in critical condition.
Sadly, firefighters were too late.
According to Deputy Fire Chief Dwayne Scotland, had firefighters been informed of the blaze sooner, they could have saved more lives. Instead, the building was engulfed in flames by the time emergency personnel arrived.
AP reported that the dormitory fire topped Guyana's previously most deadly fire, which occurred in a Georgetown prison in 2016. At the time, prisoners were angry about overcrowding, delayed court times and set the fire, ultimately killing 17 inmates.
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The US government offered to help.
Gouveia told AP that police were set to charge the man allegedly involved with the suspected arsonist for statutory rape because she was younger than 16. The US offered forensic help to Guyana to aid in the investigation. The government also will use DNA evidence to identify the remains of 13 of the 19 victims who died in the fire.
"Leaders from all over the world have been offering to help us at this time<" Gouveia said, according to AP, adding that leaders have been contacting President Irfaan Ali while he was in Mahdia on Monday.
