Guyana girls dorm fire that killed 19 was deliberately set by student, official says

By BERT WILKINSON
Associated Press

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Investigators in Guyana say they believe a fire that killed 19 mostly girls who were trapped inside a government school dormitory was deliberately set by a student who was upset that her mobile phone had been confiscated. The suspect in the fire late Sunday is among several people who were injured in the fire. National Security Adviser Gerald Gouveia said says she had been disciplined by the dorm administrator for having an affair with an older man. He says the student allegedly threatened to torch the dorm and later set a fire in a bathroom area. All but one of the victims were Indigenous girls aged 12 to 18 from remote villages served by the boarding school in Mahdia, a mining community near the Brazil border.