| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2009 
No Alarms in Building Next to Mexican Day Care
 E. Eduardo Castillo - Associated Press
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June 11, 2009
| | Mexico's Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora speaks during a news conference in Mexico City, Wednesday, June 10, 2009. Medina offered preliminary results on the ongoing investigation of the recent fire in Hermosillo, Mexico, where 43 children were killed. (AP/Gregory Bull) | |
Mexico City — There were no fire alarms or extinguishers in a warehouse where a fire started that spread to an adjacent day care center and killed 44 babies and toddlers, Mexican authorities said Wednesday.
Federal Attorney General Eduardo Medina-Mora confirmed that overheating in an air conditioning system caused the fire at the warehouse for cars, tires and paperwork in the northern city of Hermosillo.
Friday's blaze spread from the warehouse to the ABC day care in less than 25 minutes through the buildings' shared ceiling, Medina-Mora said.
He said investigators are trying to determine if there was negligence from personnel at either the day care or the warehouse, which was rented by Sonora state's treasury department.
The day care passed a safety inspection on May 26, said Daniel Karam, director of the Mexican Social Security Institute, which outsourced child services to them.
Karam said Wednesday that the institute will provide free, lifetime health care to children injured in the fire. He said it has also allotted 14.5 million pesos ($1 million) in financial support for the 78 families of children who died or were injured. There will be a toll-free number for parents to report safety problems.
The institute said in a statement late Wednesday that its delegate in Sonora, Arturo Leyva Lizarraga, has been asked to step down to allow for a more transparent investigation.
On Tuesday, two state government officials whose wives are owners of a Mexican day care center, resigned saying they wanted to clear the way for the investigation.
Meanwhile, federal officials have begun emergency safety inspections of day care centers around the country.
Secretary of Social Development Ernesto Cordero said the 8,296 day care facilities run by his office are safe, however.
Cordero said the day cares are inspected at least once every two months and are relocated if the surrounding areas are unsafe.
He said 144 complaints were filed in 2008 against day cares run by his office, including the death of two children, but said the deaths were not due to poor care. |
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