At least 20 killed in fire at school dormitory in Guyana

At least 20 people, most believed to be children, have died in a fire that broke out at a school dormitory in Mahdia, a mining town on the mainland in central Guyana.

While the cause of the fire has not been clarified, however, according to government sources, in addition to the 20 dead, there are several injured. A security source who asked not to be named told AFP that there were “many dead and wounded”, stressing that the victims were “children”.

As announced, five planes have already flown to Mahdia “to help regional health officials deliver additional medical supplies and conduct medical evacuations.”

The government said in a statement that “the President and other officials support efforts being made at Ogle (Georgetown Metropolitan Airport) to receive critically ill patients and coordinate the emergency plan. A large-scale emergency medical plan has been launched.”

Guyanese President Irfan Ali spoke of “a big disaster: it’s terrible, it hurts.” He also said that “health care on a large scale” has been mobilized, noting that he has given “orders to take special measures” at two major metropolitan hospitals “to ensure that every child in need of attention receives the best possible care.”

Mahdia is located 200 kilometers south of Georgetown, while the area suffers from heavy rains.

“We wholeheartedly support the families and relatives of those affected by this tragedy,” said opposition MP Natasha Singh-Lewis. She urged the authorities to “carry out a thorough investigation into the causes of the fire and prepare a detailed account of what happened”: “We must understand what caused this terrible deadly event and take all necessary measures to prevent such a tragedy from recurring in the future.”

Guyana is a small English-speaking country of 800,000 people in the northeastern part of South America, a former Dutch and later British colony. It has the largest per capita oil reserves in the world and hopes for rapid economic growth in the coming years by exploiting these reserves, which is still in its infancy. Experts estimate that the Guyano-Surinamese Basin has about 15 billion barrels of oil reserves associated with significant natural gas deposits.

Source link