Official: Overheating, short circuit may have caused fire

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A short circuit or overheating in an air-conditioning system in an adjacent warehouse may have caused a fire that killed 44 young children in a day-care center in northern Mexico, the state’s attorney general said Monday.

The Sonora state health department reported that one child died Sunday from injuries suffered in the blaze at the ABC day care in Hermosillo, and a 2-year-old girl died Monday shortly before she was to board a flight to California for treatment.

The deaths brought the total from Friday’s fire to 44. More than 30 children and adults with severe burns and smoke inhalation were struggling to survive in hospitals in Mexico and the United States.

Sonora Gov. Eduardo Bours vowed to fully investigate the fire and said authorities have called in the day-care center’s owners, employees and others for questioning.

“No one is above the law,” Bours told Televisa network. “We are going to look for the causes, find those responsible and nothing will stop us. The ... children who have died and their parents deserve at least that.”

Sonora state Attorney General Abel Murrieta said the fire may have been started by overheating or a short circuit at an air conditioning vent in a neighboring car and tire warehouse.

“That’s the most convincing theory investigators have found,” Murrieta told a news conference in Hermosillo.

Investigators are combing through documents authorizing the operation of the day care and trying to determine why the fire swept so quickly through the center.

The private facility — leased by the government to provide people low-cost care — cared for 173 children in a converted warehouse in an industrial area, surrounded by mechanic shops and across from a gas station, Bours said.