Click here to print
Why Were The Girls Locked Inside? Why Did One Of Them Have a Lighter?
Mon, November 30, 2015
So, now to the sequence of events that led to their deaths, and the various breakdowns in procedure that resulted in three girls padlocked in a room with a lighter. The three girls were part of a group of four who had escaped the day before and were recovered by Hattieville police. When they were taken back to the hostel, they were confined for 24 hours to their dorm room, and denied privileges.

On Saturday two female guards were in charge of 30 girls: one was supervising recreation and the other was in the dorm building - the same one with the girls that burnt down. That wooden building - which is a temporary structure has four small rooms and the common area. The other girl who had escaped, a 12 year old was in another one of those rooms, while the security guard was in the common area. That's the background to the disaster that unfolded around 2:30. Jules Vasquez was on the scene:...

Jules Vasquez reporting
At 2:29 pm - Hattieville police received notice of a fire in progress at the youth hostel.

When Police got there 10 minutes later, the building - a wooden female dorm - was already engulfed in flames.

The Fire department arrived just before 3:00 pm - but could not get their pumps working.

When we got to the youth Hostel at 3:30 this girl was on the roof - a lone figure, getting prepared it seems to jump off the two story building. She was crying and an obvious extreme distress.

Within seconds a hostel boy and girl came and held her - they put her to lie down, and can be seen trying to calm her down.

Shortly after two of the boys carried her away, off the roof to safety - she appeared to have fainted.

Inside the building we could hear all hell breaking loose - glass shattering, shouting, and more than a few of the youths on the roof.

The entire place was in a traumatized uproar because three girls had perished here inside this building.

The three of them were reduced to a little more than ash as they huddled here, between the locked grill door and the bunk bed where the fire started.

The entire ordeal started the day before when they ran way: 14 year old Elizabeth McKoy, and 16 year old's Shadisha Arnold (16yrs old), Anna Carlos (16 yrs old):

Starla Bradley, Director Community Rehabilitation Department
"Upon their return, they were confined to one of three rooms in the building being used to house the female residence at the Youth Hostel. This meant that because they had recently run away, they would be kept in their rooms for a 24 hour period and would lose certain privileges. Three of the girls of went "awol" the day before were presumable planning another escape. The plan was to start the fire in order to create a distraction. This would prompt the officer to open the door and let them out and they would ran away while the officers were occupied trying to out the fire."

"Shortly after 2:00 pm one of the girls, one of the three girls who was confined in the room called out to the officer and said that one of the three girls in the room had lit a pillow and there was a fire. Now we are not certain how quickly the girls called for help. But from the various accounts we received, the fire was already in a huge blaze on the top bunk when the officer went to the room to check on the girls. This was corroborated by some of the female residents who were in the building along with the officer at the time. The officer then proceeded to try to open the padlock which was on the door. But had difficulty opening the lock. The girls inside started to panic and in an effort to try to out the fire, the girl who it is said had started the fire threw a blanket on top of the flame and this fed the fire. All accounts are that the fire spread very quickly and since the room is small, the smoke soon engulfed the entire room, making it difficult for them to see. The second officer was called from the basketball court and she came in and took the keys from the other officer and also attempted to open the door. She stated that she could not because the smoke was too heavy and sent for a flashlight."

"Meanwhile the staff and the male residents used buckets and fire extinguishers that they had on hand to try to calm the blaze. Some persons attempted to break through the wooden wall at the back of the building. By the time they had broken through, the fire had already engulfed the building and the children could not be saved."

A tragic, unthinkable outcome - and it all happened because the door was locked when it should not have been:

Starla Bradley, Director Community Rehabilitation Department
"That is one of the things that we are trying to ascertain, why the room was actually locked because it's actually against institutional policy to lock the children in for these same safety issues. It's against protocol"

Reporter
"There are allegations that that padlock had been giving trouble, previously, to open, from a long time ago. What can you say about that?"

Starla Bradley
"That issue was just brought to our attention after the fire and in listening to some of the conversations, if that was the case it was not reported and that's one of the things we're trying to figure out what happened as well."

"We are still trying to sort through what exactly happened. Was it a case of the lock being faulty, was it a case of not being able to locate the key, was it that nerves and the issue of the smoke played into difficulties opening - we have so many questions that we're still trying to figure out at this time."

"We know that we have worked hard to develop protocols, we have done a lot of training with staff - and so the question is you know why do we still have locks, locked, padlock locks on the door and so it certainly does raise a lot of questions that we need to figure out quickly."

Reporter
"Inside of the room they were alone unsupervised. We are dealing with mentally, emotionally imbalanced kids here. Shouldn't have someone been in there with them?"

Starla Bradley
"The way it is structured, it's a very small building that has 3 rooms. There was an officer in the building with the girls and the responsibility of the officer is usually to do checks - periodic checks and make sure that all the girls in their care are safe and not getting into things that they shouldn't."

And there was another critical breakdown - when one of the girls was not searched - which enabled her to carry a lighter inside:

Jules Vasquez
"One of the girls had something to start a fire and supposedly she smuggled this in there. Do you know the details of that and was there a breakdown in search procedures that enabled her to go inside with something that could start a fire?"

Starla Bradley
"That is the question and quite possibly so, because that is considered contraband. They should never have that type of equipment. They should have been searched upon entering - thoroughly searched by a female officer and along the lines there are some things that did not follow procedure and that is what we are trying to ascertain - where along the lines, who should have done what and where that fell through."

An investigation will be conducted to find out where the other breakdowns occurred:

Judith Alpuche, CEO - Min. Of Human Development
"What we fully intend to do is a full investigation of this matter, because what we need to be able to deal with this matter is the clear unvarnished truth about what happened."

Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez, Minister of Human Dev.
"I know that the instinct is for an overnight resolution, but we need to be deliberate and thorough in our actions to be able to get a full understanding of what occur."

Judith Alpuche, CEO - Min. Of Human Development
"We cannot dwell on conjecture or hearsay. We need to really at what has happened in the cold sober light of day."

Former magistrate and director of family court Margaret Nicholas of the NCFC will lead the independent investigation

Judith Alpuche, CEO - Min. Of Human Development
"She will call it like she sees it that is. That is her reputation."

But, the hostel itself needs healing now:

Starla Bradley
"This is a terribly traumatic experience for the children and staff who were present at the time of the incident and of course for the families. We have since called in some additional counselors to come in and do crisis management. We are also drawing from support of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health as we try to provide psychological support for our children, the families of the victims and our staff." [Crying]

Three staffers have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

As regards the independent investigation, UNICEF will provide technical oversight.

And as we noted in the story, the building that burned is the temporary female dorm - a new one is being built and it should be finished in a month or two.

On Saturday night -to allay the concerns of parents who have children in the hostel, Minister Martinez signed warrants to allow 14 of them to return home. So, the female population at the hostel is now around 15. The institution still faces abundant challenges - not least of which is increasing anti-social behavior and mental health issues appearing in Belizean youth. In the last segment of our newscast - you'll hear director of Community rehabilitation Starla Braldey discuss that. Plus, she answers the question of whether she should resign in the wake of what's happened.

Close this window