Confiscated phone led deadly Gemuya down fire

GEORGETOWN: Last weekend’s school dormitory blaze that killed 19 teenagers in central Guyana was started by a disgruntled student angry at having her mobile phone confiscated, a government source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday.

An official police report confirmed that “a female student is suspected of having set the devastating fire because her cellular phone was taken away.”

The official said the suspect had admitted to the arson attack and was under police guard at the district hospital in the central town of Mahdia.

Police are seeking advice on whether to charge her, the official added.

Sunday’s inferno gutted a building housing girls ages 11, 12 and 16 to 17.

In addition to the dead, about 20 children were taken to the hospital, where two remain in critical condition.

“They (staff) took away the phone from the girl, and the girl threatened the same night that she will burn down the building and everybody heard her,” the official said, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said that minutes later, the girl went to the bathroom area and sprayed insecticide on a curtain before lighting a match.

Several students had recounted the same version of events, the official added.

Despite efforts by other students to extinguish the blaze, the official said the fire quickly swept through the wooden ceiling and eventually gutted the entire building.

“According to the female students, they were asleep and were awakened by screams,” the police report said.

“Upon checking, they saw fire/smoke in the bathroom area, which quickly spread in the building, causing several students to receive burns to their bodies and smoke inhalation, while several managed to escape,” it added.

The girls were locked in for the night and a house mistress told police that, in her panic, she could not find the front door key. The building had metal bars on the windows preventing students from escaping through them.

The police report said there were 57 pupils in the dormitory, which was “a one-flat concrete building measuring about 100 feet by 40 feet, with several windows, all grilled, and five doors.”