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Death toll hits 41 in Mexico daycare center blaze
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-08 10:01 MEXICO CITY -- The death toll from a daycare center blaze in Mexico's northern Sonora state has risen to 41, officials said on Sunday.
There were some 142 children and six staff members in the privately-run center when the fire occurred on Friday.
A baby was among the three new deaths. His parents had ordered artificial respiration to be stopped after the child was declared brain dead. Some 38 people have been hospitalized in Sonora, among whom 22 are in delicate condition, local public health officials said. A fire at a nearby warehouse leased by the state government spread to the center and caused the tragedy, and firefighters spent two hours putting the blaze under control. Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who visited hospitalized children on Saturday night, ordered the nation's attorney general to investigate what he called "the tragedy that has the nation grieving." |