Fire Departments Network

A Mexican state prosecutor says a fire that tore through a day care center, killing 44 young children, may have been caused by a short circuit or overheating of a cooling system at a nearby warehouse.

Sonora state prosecutor Abel Murrieta issued his assessment Monday as more than 30 people remained hospitalized following Friday’s blaze at the ABC day care center.  The burn victims were being treated in both Mexico and the United States.

Officials say many of the victims who died from smoke inhalation were under the age of five.  Authorities have said more than 140 children were inside the facility when the blaze erupted in the building next door.

Witnesses said flames blocked the day care center’s only exit, and that one parent used his pickup truck to knock a hole through the wall to rescue children.

Authorities have vowed to fully investigate the fire.

The day care center had recently passed a safety inspection.

A California man was sentenced to death on Friday for setting a hillside inferno in 2006 that killed five USFF firefighters. The penalty had been recommended by the jury that convicted the man, Raymond L. Oyler, 38, of murder and arson in March.

In imposing the sentence, Judge W. Charles Morgan of Superior Court in Riverside County said Mr. Oyler had “set on a mission — why? no one knows — to create havoc in this county by setting fires of his own design, for his own purpose.”

Judge Morgan added, “He knew young men and young women would put their lives on the line to protect property and people.”

Prosecutors said the Beaumont mechanic had set fires throughout the San Gorgonio Pass in the summer of 2006 leading up to the Esperanza fire on Oct. 26.

Early that morning, he used a combination of matches and a cigarette to light a fire in a remote area of Cabazon. Gusty Santa Ana winds drove the flames into the San Jacinto Mountains, where they reached speeds of 40 mph and temperatures of 1,500 degrees.