Mexico City - Wherever one looks, the tragic fire that
claimed the lives of 44 small children last week in northwestern
Mexico is spreading its stain on those with political power, even as
doctors worked desperately to save the lives of 10 other children who
remain in serious condition.
The owners of the facility had impeccable credentials, if family
connections are any measure.
Two of the owners of the facility are married to government
officials. One of them, Marcia Gomez del Campo, is a distant relative
of Mexico's First Lady Margarita Zavala. A third owner once held
political positions.
The warehouse adjoining the day care centre, where the fire is
believed to have started, was operated by the state of Sonora's
Finance Ministry. And the institution for which the day care centre
worked is Mexico's main public health organ.
'Indeed, we are related,' Zavala said. 'Although I do not know
(Gomez del Campo) personally, I understand that we have a
great-grandfather in common.'
The wife of Mexican President Felipe Calderon stressed, however,
that 'family ties must never be above the law.'
Gomez del Campo's family connections spread beyond the president's
wife: she is the niece of the wife of Sonora Governor Eduardo Bours,
married to the state minister for Infrastructure and Urban
Development, and a second cousin to Ernesto Gandara, mayor of
Hermosillo, the city where the tragedy happened.
The other owners of the ABC day care centre, which had been in
operation since 2001, are Francisco Urquides Serrano - former finance
secretary of the Revolutionary Institutional Party, which rules the
state - and Sandra Lucia Tellez, the wife of the state cattle-farming
undersecretary Alfonso Escalante.
The fire was caused by an electrical cross-circuit or an
overheated air conditioner at the warehouse adjoining the day care
centre, which held documents and three vehicles belonging to the
vehicle control department of the state Finance Ministry.
The warehouse and the children's facility shared a wall. Fire and
smoke quickly sneaked across through the roof, which had polyurethane
isolation. Nobody noticed the smoke until it was already too late:
the polyurethane melted and gave out toxic gases.
Questions multiply by the hour, as the succession of events
becomes clearer.
How could an industrial warehouse space ever be allowed to be used
as a day care centre, when it was next to facilities with flammable
material including a petrol station and a tyre store, parents and
newspaper editorial writers are demanding to know?
Who approved a warehouse with a metal-panel and polyurethane roof
as a safe place to hold 200 children? How could the emergency exit
possibly be sealed from the inside? Where were the smoke detectors?
Sonora Attorney General Abel Murrieta vowed that there will not be
'anyone out of reach' of the investigation or given consideration
because of 'distinctions of any kind.' Those responsible for the
tragedy will be punished, he stressed.
Intoxicated and burned children - many of them deformed by burns
in over 80 per cent of their bodies - are fighting for their lives in
hospital. Devastated parents of dead children hold on to little
coffins for as long as they can.
In this setting, the cry is unanimous: Why?
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