The death toll in a fire at a troubled youth shelter in Guatemala rose to 31 Thursday as a dozen more girls died at hospitals overnight and details began to emerge of a tragedy fueled by angry, neglected youths seeking to flee terrible conditions.
Nineteen girls were found burned to death in the rubble of a dormitory fire fueled by foam mattresses Wednesday. Twelve of the 39 residents injured later died at hospitals, said Adrian Chavez, the assistant health minister. Of the 27 girls still hospitalized, ten are in critical conditions with life-threatening burn injuries, often covering more than 50 per cent of their bodies.
The inferno grew out of a mass escape attempt. Dozens of teens held in an overcrowded state-run shelter on the outskirts of Guatemala's capital flooded through the gates Tuesday evening, most only to be caught and locked down in their dorms.
Yesterday morning someone set fire to mattresses in the girls' section of the rural campus, authorities said. The blaze quickly spread through two dorms.
Distraught parents waited outside hospitals and the shelter, a state-run facility that accepted abused, neglected or homeless children, but also housed youth who had completed sentences at juvenile detention centers.
Parents scribbled their children's names on pieces of paper to pass to shelter staff begging for information. They went to the two local hospitals and the morgue.
Authorities worked to identify victims, but said DNA tests might be necessary for some remains. At Roosevelt Hospital, Dr. Marco Antonio Barrientos asked parents waiting outside for information to come back with photographs, dental records and details about tattoos or other distinctive features.
Piedad Estrada, a street vendor, arrived at the hospital with a photograph of her 16-year-old daughter. She said the teen was pregnant and had been at the shelter for nine days because she ran away from home.
Estrada searched at the hospitals and the morgue, but got no information. She showed the photo to workers at one hospital, but they said they had five girls who were completely bandaged so they could not be sure.
"They only took her from me to burn her," Estrada said. "I blame the state for what has happened."
Late yesterday at the morgue, Patricia Ramirez said her 15-year-old granddaughter Achly Gabriela Mendez Ramirez was one of the dead. She said her daughter, the girl's mother, had identified Achly's burned body at the shelter earlier in the day, but authorities said they would not release her body until there was a DNA test.
Ramirez said the family was from a region east of the capital in Jutiapa department and Achly had been at the home for one year.
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