19 people sentenced for 2009 ABC Day Care blaze that killed 49 children

Posted by DD partially Republished from Mexico News Daily, and Sin Embargo and Borderland Beat archives

 On June 5, 2009, there were 142 children in the ABC Daycare Center in Hermosillo on June 5, 2009 when the converted warehouse building caught fire after an explosion in a neighboring warehouse (used by the State Ministry of the Treasury).  Arson was not considered the cause by PGR who said it had determined the explosion came from a faulty air conditioning system in the adjoining warehouse.

That warehouse where the fire originated was used by the state Ministry of Treasury for record storage. Forty-nine children died in the fire and 40 other children and six adults were injured in the fire after it spread to the building housing the day care center.

 Parents of the 49 children who perished in the fire believed the fire was intentionally set to destroy records stored there that they didn't want to become public.  

As details of why so many were killed came to light in the investigation that followed an uproar was heard all over Mexico   The loss of 49 children was bad enough, but when people found out that the deaths were at least partly caused by the ineptitude, negligence, and public servants just not doing their job of supervision and inspections of day care centers, it seems the whole country was angry not only at the day care center operators but at the government as well.

 

In the image, several people light candles at the Angel of Independence in Mexico City, in memory of the 49 children who died in the fire at the ABC Nursery Hermosillo

 The daycare center had passed a safety inspection the week before the fire, according to information published by Wikipedia. But reports after the blaze revealed that there was only one functioning exit, the fire alarms had been improperly installed and the building’s windows were too high to be used to rescue the children.

The building should never have been certified as suitable for a day care facility.

A  tarpaulin had been hung as a false ceiling, trapping smoke between it and the roof. Meanwhile, the fire detectors had been installed below the level of the tarp so that the smoke trapped above the tarp could not trigger the alarms.

The daycare center had been ordered to remove the tarp and install additional fire exits but the work was never done

The death toll could have been higher if it were not for rescue efforts by citizens outside the building.

A desperate passerby used his pickup truck to punch through the walls and get in. Francisco Manuel López Villaescusa was one of several people who were subsequently awarded Proudly Sonoran medals by the governor at the time for their efforts.

López Villaescusa received a special mention for breaking through the wall and facilitating the rescue of dozens of children.

Regular readers of BB know how slowly the judicial system in Mexico can operate and in this case 22 people were charged and just a couple of weeks shy of seven years after the horrible tragedy the judge in the case handed out sentences to 19 of the 22 charged with being criminally responsible for the death of the children.

Among those implicated and sentenced: the former head of daycare centers at IMSS, who got 29 years and the directors of Civil Protection for both the state and Hermosillo, the fire chief and other fire and municipal officials  got 28-year sentences

 The news outlet, Sin Embargo said it considered that the resolution was a 'smokescreen' by the PGR to continue covering up former Governor of that state, Jose Eduardo Robinson Bours Castelo, and top officials of the federal and state governments that were involved in the irregularities that allowed the tragedy occurred because the records were all sealed.  

Borderland Beat in a story published in 2014 about EPN leaving any reference to corruption out of his State of the Union message, asks the question;

" How can we not be outraged when, according to information obtained by the dedicated parents of 49 children killed in the ABC Daycare Center in Sonora, released this week in a report by Indigo, the fire was ordered by state officials in order to destroy evidence of diversion of resources? How not to get frustrated by the cynicism with which practitioners of the art of the kickback behave?