A Locked Door, a Fire and 41 Girls Killed as Police Stood By

One young survivor of the fire has burns over 95 percent of her body. She hardly goes outside anymore to avoid the stares and teasing from other children.

Credit Daniele Volpe for The New York Times

A Locked Door, a Fire and 41 Girls Killed as Police Stood By

By Azam Ahmed
Feb. 14, 2019

GUATEMALA CITY — As fire swept through the classroom, the pleas from the 56 girls locked inside began to fade.

Most were unconscious or worse by then, as an eerie silence replaced their panic-stricken shouts.

The police officers guarding the door — who had refused to unlock it despite the screams — waited nine minutes before stepping inside. They got water to cool down the scorching knob.

Inside, dozens of girls placed in the care of the Guatemalan state lay sprawled on the blackened floor. Forty-one of them died.

It was one of the deadliest tragedies in Guatemala since the end of its civil war decades ago, and it happened inside a group home for at-risk youth who had been put there by the government, supposedly for their own protection.

More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/world/americas/guatemala-shelter-fire-trial.html

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https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016226596