The dormitory in Mahdia, Guyana, charred by the flames. May 22, 2023. AP
Nineteen “young people” died in Guyana on Sunday evening, May 21, in what may have been a “malicious” fire at a girls’ school dormitory in Mahdia, an inland mining town in this small northeastern country. South America.
“It’s a big catastrophe. It’s terrible, it’s painful,” President Irfaan Ali said on Monday morning. The latter, who declared three days of national mourning, went to the scene of the tragedy in the afternoon, accompanied by a large government delegation that included the police chief. “We will continue to be by your side,” he told families.
“Preliminary investigations indicate the fire was intentional,” Guyana Police Chief Clifton Hicken said during a televised news conference in Mahdia. However, he did not elaborate on the possible reasons, saying “that DNA tests were carried out” and that six bodies had been autopsied. “Fourteen young people died on the spot, five died in Mahdia District Hospital,” said a statement released by firefighters in the morning.
The President confirmed these figures in the afternoon, stressing that a young boy and thirteen young girls had died on the spot and that five people had died in Mahdia hospital. Seventeen are still hospitalized, according to the new report.
Difficult rescues and evacuations
Authorities have checked the numbers of people present: According to the new report, 59 young girls were “registered” at the dormitory, but three were absent to spend the weekend at home.
The walls of the Mahdia dormitory blackened by flames, May 22, 2023. KENO GEORGE / AFP
“Firefighters managed to save around twenty students by drilling holes in the northeast wall of the building,” the firefighters’ statement said. The windows of the concrete building were fitted with security bars.
Evacuations by plane and medical reinforcements were made difficult by heavy rain, the rescue services said. The city of Mahdia is about 200 km south of the capital, Georgetown, but getting there by car is by rail and usually takes a day.
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The fire broke out in the girls’ dormitory, where young people aged “11-12 to 16-17 years live,” said a person who accompanied the rescue workers on site on condition of anonymity. The building is completely charred and the walls are blackened by the flames. The tin roof collapsed.
An injured child, who arrived by plane, at Georgetown Airport, May 22, 2023. ROYSTON DRAKE/AP
At the end of the morning, about fifty people expressed their anger at the tragedy in Chenapau, a village near Mahdia where some of the victims are from, Michael McGarrell, a Georgetown resident, told Agence France-Presse lost two nieces.
“Detailed check up”
“We must be compensated for our losses,” read a sign. “Bars are for prisoners. We need justice,” reads another poster. “The pain, the agony, the trauma… Who is to blame? What will we tell the parents? asked Michael McGarrell, an activist with the NGO Amerindian People’s Association (APA), which is often at odds with the government over land rights, gold panning and, more recently, the sale of carbon credits to US oil company Hess.
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“Our condolences go out to the families and loved ones of those affected by this tragedy,” said Natasha Singh-Lewis, MP for the opposition.
Relatives of the victims of the fire in Mahdia present at the press conference of Guyana President Irfaan Ali on May 22, 2023. KENO GEORGE / AFP
“We urge the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the causes of the fire and provide a detailed report of the actual incident.” We must understand how this terrible event happened and take all necessary measures to prevent such a thing from happening Tragedy repeated in the future,” she added.
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Guyana, a small poor English-speaking country of 800,000, a former Dutch and then British colony, has the largest per capita oil reserves in the world and hopes for rapid development in the years to come as exploitation of these reserves is still in its infancy hands lies beginnings. Experts estimate that the Guyana-Suriname Basin contains around 15 billion barrels of oil reserves associated with significant gas deposits.