NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 20

Dispatches International

GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA

40 girls die in fire in Guatemala shelter
FORTY TEENAGE GIRLS died in a fire
on March 8 after allegedly being locked
in a room as punishment at a shelter for
youth in Guatemala.
Known as Hogar Seguro Virgen de
la Asunción, the shelter, which sits on
the outskirts of Guatemala City, houses
children who have been orphaned,
abandoned, or turned over by guardians
who can't financially support them.
Beyond fire and life safety issues, the
deadly fire renewed allegations that
children were physically and sexually
abused by staff at the shelter. In 2013,
several of its staff members were found
guilty of sexual abuse. The center was
also overcrowded. Meant to accommodate 500 children, there were
reportedly around 800 living there at
the time of the fire.
So far, the director of the shelter and
two government officials have been

20 | NFPA JOURNAL * M A Y / J U N E 2 0 1 7

arrested. Each was charged with involuntary manslaughter, abuse of minors,
and breach of duty.
The fire stresses the importance of
NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®, which
ensures occupants are able to easily exit
a building in the case of a fire or other
threat to life safety.
"Ensuring egress doors are not compromised needs to be top priority,"
said Greg Harrington, a fire protection
engineer at NFPA. "Don't be misled into
thinking that security takes precedence
over life safety." An exception to the rule
is detention facilities, which the Guatemalan shelter was not.
In an interview with investigators,
which was obtained and reported by
The New Yorker, one of the girls who
survived the fire said she and about 50
other girls had been locked in a room
as punishment for rioting and running

away the night before. When three girls
inside the room started a fire by igniting
mattresses, she said the police officers
guarding the room ignored the girls'
cries for help. "They were watching how
we caught on fire, but they were not
going to open the door," the girl said.
The girls who died ranged from 13 to 17.
The blaze recalls the massive 2012
prison fire that claimed 361 lives in
Comayagua, Honduras, where overcrowding drove up the death toll.
While the Comayagua fire was the
deadliest prison fire ever recorded, it
was not an anomaly for Latin America,
where scores have died in fires in overcrowded and improperly maintained
prisons. In 2004, 101 died in a fire
at the San Pedro Sula prison, also in
Honduras. Similar to what the girl who
survived the Guatemala fire described
to investigators, an inmate from San
Pedro Sula told The Associated Press
that prisoners would keep keys and
crowbars inside their cells to escape
if a fire broke out because "the police
would run away and leave us in here."

GETT Y IMAGES

SECURITY OVER SAFETY
Witnesses of the youth shelter fire in Guatemala accused
guards of refusing to open locked doors to allow detainees
to escape the blaze. "They were watching how we caught on
fire, but they were not going to open the door," one girl said.



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - May/June 2017

Contents
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 1
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - Contents
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 3
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 4
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 5
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 6
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 7
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 8
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NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 15
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 16
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - I1
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - I2
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 17
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 18
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 19
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 20
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