11 dead after man allegedly set fire to bar in Mexico after being kicked out
- A man has been arrested for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at the Beer House Cantina bar in San Luis, Mexico, after he was removed from the bar company premises
- Eleven people, including a 17-year-old and an American citizen, died in the fire
- Several others remain hospitalized, authorities said on Saturday
A man has been arrested on suspicion of deliberately starting a fire that killed 11 people in the Mexican state of Sonora, near the Arizona border.
Mexican authorities said the suspect, who has not yet been named, was removed from the Beer House Cantina bar in San Luis Rio, Colorado, Mexico, in the early hours of Saturday morning for disrespectful behavior toward female patrons.
The unnamed man, who was “heavily intoxicated,” came back and threw a “type of “Molotov” cocktail at the bar that caused the incident,” the Sonora Attorney General’s Office said.
The devastating fire broke out at 1:33 a.m. Saturday and claimed the lives of 11 people by nightfall.
A 17-year-old American woman was among the dead.
According to investigators, a man was thrown out of a Mexican bar and then set on fire. Eleven people died as a result
The fire broke out at 1:33 a.m. Saturday and police had an unnamed suspect in custody
The American teenager’s name has not been released.
Footage from the scene showed the building being ravaged by a runaway fire while firefighters struggled to contain the bloodshed. The building is located in San Luis Rio Colorado, on the Mexico-Arizona border.
The main suspect is being interrogated, Sonora Attorney General Gustavo Rómulo Salas Chávez said at a press conference on Saturday.
Four of the eleven dead were women. A total of six people were injured in the fire.
Arizona’s Yuma Regional Medical Center has admitted three patients, one remains hospitalized and the other two have been discharged.
Another three were sent to other US hospitals for treatment.
The medical center issued a statement saying, “Our condolences go out to the victims and families affected by his tragedy.”
The Beer House Cantina bar in San Luis Rio, Colorado quickly caught fire. The bar is on the border between Mexico and Arizona
Eleven people were killed in the deadly fire, which authorities say was intentionally set
Firefighters eventually put out the blaze that killed eleven and injured six others
The father-in-law of one of the victims, Aurelio Herrera, told KYMA, “They told us there was no emergency exit, just a door that was blocked.”
“Someone threw a Molotov bomb and the fire went out quickly.”
“You have no idea, he was my son-in-law. Of course I’m very sad,” added Herrera.
The names of the other victims were not released. The building was severely damaged and cordoned off with police tape on Saturday afternoon.