School blaze kills 90 children.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
School blaze kills 90 children.
4
Fri, 07-16-2004 - 6:38pm

 Candle   At least 90 children have been killed in a massive fire at a school in southern India, officials said.


http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/07/16/india.fire/index.html


The dead included 44 girls and 46 boys, most under the age of 10, officials said.


Forty others were hospitalized, and 30 of those were in critical condition, said officials at Government Hospital in the town of Kumbakonam, where the school was located.


One official said the 900 students attending the school in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu may have had difficulty exiting during the fire.


The roof collapsed on an unknown number of children during the blaze.


Hospital officials said 70 of the children have been identified so far.


Preliminary reports indicate the fire started around 11 a.m. (1:30 a.m. ET) and may have been the result of an electrical short in the kitchen.


The flames then quickly spread to the thatched roof, which was largely made of leaves and other vegetation. Heavy winds fanned the fire.


The school is a girls' school, but such schools in India often admit boys in the lower grades.


Kumbakonam is about 185 miles (300 km) south of Chennai, formerly Madras, the state capital.

cl-Libraone~

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-24-2003
Fri, 07-16-2004 - 7:11pm
:(
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Tue, 07-20-2004 - 10:43am
Heart breaking....
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Tue, 07-20-2004 - 6:41pm

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=India%20School%20Fire


Tuesday, July 20, 2004 · Last updated 12:10 p.m. PT


India makes arrests in school fire case


By S.SRINIVASAN


BANGALORE, India -- Police charged six government officials and a private engineer Tuesday with falsifying records in connection with a school fire last week that killed 90 children.


Five of the six officials were key members in the district education department in Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu state. The sixth was a local revenue official responsible for approving school licenses, police officer P. Kalyanasundaram said. Kumbakonam is 175 miles southwest of Madras.


The engineer had certified that the private school building was structurally sound, a necessity in India for licensing a school.


In India, businessmen often bribe government officials to receive government approval for schools and businesses and ignore safety rules.


Police also interrogated the school's 23 teachers, officials said. Five other people, including the owners of the school, were arrested within 12 hours of the fire.


Police said the fire began in the kitchen and spread to the thatched roof made of palm leaves and bamboo poles, which collapsed on students below.


Friday's fire resulted in panic and stampedes, and children died of burns, suffocation and being trampled by classmates.


Kalyanasundaram said the police had "an open mind" about taking teachers into custody if enough information could be provided on their responsibility for the tragedy.


"It is possible that the teachers panicked after the fire, which is only a natural reaction. We have to see whether they are really culpable of abandoning the children," he said.


Days after the fire, the Indian state where the fire occurred ordered hundreds of schools with flammable thatched roofs to close until they built sturdier roofs.


iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 11:04am


It is good to know they are taking some actions. Lets hope the justice prevails.

Thanks for posting this.