At least 20 people, many of them children, were killed when a fire engulfed a girls’ dormitory at a school in central Guyana, a tragedy that the country’s president on Monday described as “horrific” and a “major disaster.”
Several others were injured in the blaze, which broke out late Sunday in the town of Mahdia, about 120 miles southwest of the capital, Georgetown. Seven students in critical condition were being evacuated to the capital.
“The focus now is on the children to ensure that we do everything, to give them as much help as we can,” President Mohamed Irfaan Ali told journalists early Monday at Ogle airport, also known as Eugene F. Correia International Airport, where he was organizing a “full-scale emergency” plan.
Inclement weather had slowed the government’s immediate response to the crisis, the government said in an earlier statement.
Survivors were being flown to the capital to receive treatment at two hospitals, and five planes stocked with emergency medical supplies and health care workers were dispatched to Mahdia to support rescue and evacuation efforts.
The blaze was believed to have started at around 11:40 p.m. on Sunday, according to the government, but the full scale of the damage and the cause of the fire had not yet been confirmed. Images posted by a local news outlet showed a glowing plume of smoke rising from the blazing building at the Mahdia Secondary School.
Efforts were being made to reach the relatives of the victims, who come from villages across the country, according to the government.
“We have to get this right,” said Mr. Ali, who said psychologists and counselors were needed for the emergency response effort, which was headed in Mahdia by the country’s minister of home affairs, Robeson Benn. Prime Minister Mark Phillips was leading a team of officials to the site.
Natasha Singh-Lewis, a representative for the opposition coalition A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change, called for a thorough investigation into “what really went wrong” at the school, in a statement posted on Facebook on Monday.
“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.