A fire that engulfed a girls’ dormitory at a school overnight in central Guyana and killed at least 19 people, many of them children, had been “maliciously set,” a fire service official said on Monday, as the authorities in the South American country scrambled for answers.
The official, a representative for the Guyana Fire Service, said in a message, “We cannot confirm who set the fire at this time.”
Earlier on Monday, the country’s president, Mohamed Irfaan Ali, described the blaze as “horrific” and a “major disaster,” and said he was organizing a “full-scale emergency” plan.
The ages of the victims were not immediately known, but students enrolled at the school in Mahdia, a gold mining town about 120 miles southwest of the capital, Georgetown, are between 12 and 18.
Officials originally put the death toll at 20, but health care workers resuscitated a young girl who remains in critical condition, according to the fire service.
The blaze broke out around 10:50 p.m. on Sunday, according to the government. A female student was awakened by screams in the night. She saw a fire in the bathroom area that quickly spread to other parts of the building, but was able to escape, the government said.
In a statement on Facebook, the Guyana Fire Service said firefighters had broken holes in a wall of the building to rescue 20 students. Fourteen victims died at the site of the blaze, and five others at a hospital, the statement said. Six other students were evacuated to the capital to receive treatment, and two remained in critical condition.
Five planes stocked with emergency medical supplies and health care workers were also dispatched to Mahdia to support rescue and evacuation efforts, officials said.
“The focus now is on the children to ensure that we do everything, to give them as much help as we can,” Mr. Ali told journalists early Monday at Ogle airport, also known as Eugene F. Correia International Airport.
Inclement weather slowed the initial response to the crisis, the government said in an earlier statement. Images posted by a local news outlet showed a glowing plume of smoke rising from the blazing building at Mahdia Secondary School.
Efforts were being made to reach the relatives of the victims, who come from villages across the country to attend the school, according to the government.
In Mahdia, which has a majority Indigenous or Amerindian population, students largely come from remote areas. The government provides air travel so that they can attend the public boarding school.
Michael Mc Garrell, an Amerindian activist, said in a telephone interview that his 15-year-old twin great-nieces were among the fire victims.
“They were jovial girls, always together; when you see one, the other is always there,” he said in a WhatsApp message. “Our family is deeply heartbroken by their sudden demise.”
Mr. Mc Garrell and other activists have raised concerns about metal grills on the dormitory windows, which he believed blocked the victims from escaping.
“It was a poorly designed building,” said Mr. Mc Garrell, who lives in the village of Chenapou, which has a population of 800 and lost four residents in the fire, including the twins, he said.
Some residents of Chenapou began demonstrating, asking for a national day of mourning and for the bodies to be repatriated.
“The community is angry,” Mr. Mc Garrell said. “They’re trying to find answers.”
A regional education officer for Guyana’s Ministry of Education, which operates the school, declined to comment, saying she was not permitted to speak to the news media.
“We have to get this right,” said President Ali, who added that psychologists and counselors were needed for the emergency response effort, which was headed in Mahdia by the country’s minister of home affairs, Robeson Benn. Prime Minister Mark Phillips was also leading a team of officials to the site.
Natasha Singh-Lewis, a representative for the opposition coalition A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change, called for a thorough investigation into “what really went wrong” at the school, according to a statement posted on Facebook on Monday.
“We need to understand how this most horrific and deadly incident occurred and take all necessary measures to prevent such a tragedy from happening again,” she said.
Denis Chabrol and Cora Engelbrecht contributed reporting.
