AKIPRESS.COM - Twenty-one were killed after a fire tore through a youth home on Wednesday in San Jose Pinula, Guatemala, according to Jorge Mario Cruz, a spokesman for the country's volunteer firefighter brigade, CNN reported.
Video from the scene showed sobbing family members outside the home, banging on the doors looking for loved ones.
Nineteen female residents of Virgen de la Asunción Safe Home were killed in the blaze, all of them between the ages of 13 and 17, the country's National Civil Police told CNN en Espanol. A cook at the home was also killed. It wasn't immediately clear if the 21st victim was a resident of the youth home.
The fire, which began around 9 a.m., injured 37 other minors, according to the Public Ministry; the National Civil Police said 11 victims were seriously injured.