Guatemala fire toll rises

GUATEMALA CITY: A fire that ripped through an overcrowded home for abused children in Guatemala killed at least 35 people, mostly girls, and doctors yesterday described their shock at the severity of the burns suffered by two dozen hospitalised victims.

‘‘I’ve been doing this for 29 years. What I saw yesterday was a scene from Dante,’’ said Juan Antonio Villeda, director of the San Juan de Dios hospital, where 17 victims with extremely serious burns were being treated.

The fire broke out on Thursday as some residents allegedly set mattresses ablaze following an escape attempt from the governmentrun Virgen de Asuncion home for youths aged up to 18, near San Jose Pinula, 25km southwest of the capital, Guatemala City.

Investigators were trying to determine whether the fire was started by a group that authorities had isolated after the escape attempt on Tuesday night.

Guatemala has Latin America’s worst rates of child malnutrition and its public institutions

are underfunded, racked by corruption and widespread overcrowding.

Criticism is mounting about conditions in the home, which housed boys as well as girls.

Presidential spokesman Heinz Heimann said victims of abuse were mixed in with juvenile offenders in what he criticised as open living arrangements. Parents alleged abuse at the centre, including rape, and said gangs operated there. — Reuters