-officials confirm 19 died in late night inferno
May 22, 2023
As investigators work to determine the cause of the fire which gutted the female dormitory of the Mahdia Secondary School on Sunday night, a team of government officials including Prime Minister, Brigadier (Ret’d)Mark Phillips, Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn and Minister of Education Priya Manickchand have been meeting with affected parents and students.
According to the Ministry of Education, Ms. Manickchand who travelled to the Region Eight town early on Monday morning, is meeting with the children currently sitting the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams who were residents of the affected Mahdia dormitory. “She is advising them of their options at this time even as a team of psychologists are on their way into the community. Let us continue to pray for these children and the affected parents,” the MOE said on its Facebook page.
The Minister has also met and consoled affected parents whose loved ones perished in the fire. Among the affected parents was Valerie Carter, the mother of Mary D’andrade and Martha D’andrade, 15-year-old twins who died in the fire. She also met Chenapau resident Elda Toney, whose daughter Eulanda Carter died in the fire.
According to residents of Mahdia , the victims of the fire hail from far-flung villages within the region including Micobie, Karisparu, EL Paso , Kopinang and Chenapau. Some of the victims were preparing to sit the CXC examinations this week, people in the area noted.
According to the Guyana Fire Service, the entity received a call around 23:15 hrs on Sunday and its teams immediately responded to the scene. However, the building was already engulfed in flames, the fire service said.
Fourteen children died at the scene, while five died at the Mahdia District Hospital while receiving medical attention. A total of sixty-three females were housed at the facility.
At the time of writing this article, two children remain in critical condition, while four are nursing severe injuries as a result of the incident. The six children were air-dashed to the city this morning to seek medical attention. Five students remain admitted at the Mahdia hospital, and another ten are in observation, the fire service said.
The GFS said fire fighters managed to rescue some twenty students by breaking holes in the north-eastern wall of the building. Fire officials are on the ground investigating the possible cause of the blaze, the fire service said.