20 kids die in Guyana school dormitory fire, President Ali calls it ‘major disaster’

A “horrific” fire at a school dormitory in the South American country of Guyana left at least 20 children dead and seven injured.

The fire broke out Monday midnight at the Mahdia Secondary School in central Guyana. Nation's President Irfaan Ali called it “a major disaster”.

“It is horrible, it is painful," the South American nation's president said.

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The government is evacuating the injured to the capital, Georgetown, where a special centre has been set up.

The president said that arrangements have been made in the two major hospitals in Guyana's capital of Georgetown "so that every single child who requires attention be given the best possible opportunity to get that attention."

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Bad weather conditions are impeding the emergency services’ ability to contain the fire, the government said.

Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn is at the scene of the fire incident, and the prime minister and other government officials are on their way there, AFP news agency reported.

"It is with heavy heart and pain that the Cabinet is being briefed and kept updated on a horrific fire at the dormitory in Mahdia. All efforts are being made to have a full-scale medical evacuation-supported response," the government's Department of Public Information said in a statement.

Questions being raised

Even as the government is taking all measures to save the lives of the injured, questions are being raised against the school authorities as to how did the fire spread so much to engulf a whole dormitory.

The opposition member of Parliament, Natasha Singh-Lewis, called for an investigation into the fire's cause.

"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.

According to reports, the Mahdia Secondary School Dormitory is at the centre of the Guyanese government’s push to improve the education level in the less developed part of the country.

In previous government statements, the construction of the school dormitory has been described as an effort to “bridge the gaps between the hinterland and coastal areas,” reports CNN.

Guyana is located between Venezuela and Suriname on the northern coast of South America.

A small English-speaking country of 800,000 people, Guyana is a former Dutch and British colony with the world's largest per capita oil reserves, which it hopes will help spur rapid development.

(With inputs from agencies)