Parents of two teenagers file case against Guyana govt after fire at dorm

Guyana: A fire at a high school dormitory for indigenous girls last year, which took the lives of 20 people has come back to haunt the government as the parents of two teenage girls who survived the incident have filed a case against the authorities, citing negligence on their part as the primary cause.

According to sources, the lawsuit demands compensation worth $50,000 for each of the two girls, whose identities have been protected. The girls were rescued by first responders and residents who put their own lives at risk to ensure their safety, at the Mahdia dormitory near the border with Brazil, in May 2023.

According to investigators, the fire was started by a student whose phone had been confiscated, due to which she took this drastic step in a fit of rage.

The case filed against the government by Attorney Eusi Anderson states that the authorities failed to train the staff for such situations, which is the norm, and did not provide basic fire equipment which should have been available in the case of an emergency of this nature. The dormitory is also said to have lacked management methods, marked and well-lit exit routes, fire extinguishers, and other emergency equipment according to the case file, which is a serious allegation against the government. Despite the uproar surrounding this tragic incident, a date has not been set for the preliminary hearing.

It has also been stated in the case file that the two girls in question suffered from smoke inhalation and presented with severe burns. Besides that, they were traumatized by the horrific experience of watching 19 females and one young male die in the incident as they found themselves trapped in the building by iron grills.

The staff of the dormitory was busy locating the keys as the inferno continued to eat the building and the people inside it.

Understandably, this left them mentally scarred, as one of the girls explained in her deposition that she continued to have trouble sleeping after the incident and finds it very difficult to communicate with her peers.

Anderson has stated unequivocally that the government is responsible for the entire episode as the girls at the dormitory were under its care and by extension, the government’s responsibility at the time of the incident.

Interestingly, the government’s defendant, Guyana's Attorney General Anil Nandlall, refrained from commenting on these developments and no official statement has been issued regarding his stance on the matter.

To it credit, the government of Guyana did announce in July of last year that it would pay $25,000 to the parents of each of the 20 children that passed away in the incident.

The lawsuit also follows the report of a government-appointed commission which was tasked with investigating the incident. According to the commission’s report, the blame for the incident does partially lies with the government as it failed to put the right emergency systems in place to counter such a situation.

A part of the report stated the following, "There was no fire alarm system, no fire detection system, no exit signs, and no smoke detection system. There were only three fire extinguishers provided in the buildings and grills were seen on all the windows."

The authorities have clarified that the grills were put in place to keep the girls from escaping and socializing with gold and diamond miners in the area, which has been an issue in the past.

The commission instructed the government to improve the safety parameters put in place at such places to ensure that the occupants are not endangered in the case of an emergency.