Death toll from Mexico's daycare center fire now 47

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-23 11:47

MEXICO CITY: A two-year-old girl had died of severe burns sustained in a fire at a daycare center, bringing the death toll from the accident to 47, authorities said on Monday.

Ximena Alvarez had been in hospital for 17 days after burnt by the fire on June 5 at the ABC daycare center in Hermosillo, the capital of the northwest state of Sonora.

Over 140 children were in the facility, most of them asleep, when flames spreading over from a nearby storehouse, owned by the state government, trapped them inside. Some 37 died on the scene.

Earlier on Monday, local media reported that Mexican government health provider the Mexican Social Security Agency (IMSS) may sue the Sonora state government over the incident.

"The storehouse run by the Sonora government was operating without appropriate security measures -- alarms, fire extinguishers and smoke detectors -- and there was no guard stationed who could have spotted the fire and warned daycare center staff on time," Daniel Karam, the IMSS' director general told reporters.

Karam said 11 children are still in hospital more than two weeks after the incident, some with burns covering over 90 percent of their bodies. He said conditions for five children, three hospitalized in the western state of Jalisco and two in Sonora are especially critical.

Last week, two Sonora state government officials who had financial stakes in the ABC daycare center resigned, saying they would help investigations now under way by several prosecuting agencies.

The head of Hermosillo's Civil Protection Department also resigned on Friday.

Karam had earlier said his agency would review the licenses of 95 percent of Mexico's daycare centers, which like the ABC daycare center was privately owned.

The IMSS has already suspended activities at another Sonora daycare center over faulty wiring.

"We have to make the greatest efforts to guarantee security at all daycare centers licensed by the Agency," Karam said. According to Karam, the facilities are providing care for 223,000 children in total.

"In addition, starting this week, we will be publishing on the IMSS website the names of the shareholders of each daycare center and the name of the principal," he added.

The agency will also have a survey on the 1,426 day care centers it has licensed next week and start taking action against those who fail to meet health and safety standards, he added.