9 Jun 2009

Cooling system blamed for fatal daycare centre fire

3:55 pm on 9 June 2009

An overheated cooling system in an adjacent warehouse is blamed for starting a fire that killed 44 people in a daycare centre in Mexico.

Most of the victims of the fire in the city of Hermosillo on Friday were children under the age of two. Most died from smoke inhalation.

There were 141 children at the centre at the time and at least 30 are still in hospital.

Sonora state prosecutor Abel Murrieta says the fire was generated by the overheating or a short circuit in a machine of a cooling system in a government warehouse.

News reports said the daycare centre had only one emergency exit which was closed on the day of the fire.