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Mexico Day Care Fire Now A Criminal Investigation

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Mexico Day Care Fire Now A Criminal Investigation

Mexico Day Care Fire Now A Criminal Investigation

Federal investigators are reopening the case of a day care fire that killed 49 children four years ago in the Mexican state of Sonora.

On the anniversary of the fire, Wednesday, an official from the Mexican attorney general’s office spoke on national television. He said the fire now is being investigated as a potential criminal case.

In June 2009, 49 children burned to death in the Hermosillo day care center, ABC. Dozens more were injured. Some had to be flown to the U.S. for burn treatment.

At the time, a malfunctioning air conditioner in a building next door was blamed.

But parents involved in the case said they had learned the fire was intentionally set at the adjacent business where someone was trying to burn documents related to a debt owed by the state.

Now federal investigators are following that line of investigation.

Fronteras Desk senior editor Michel Marizco is an award-winning investigative reporter based in Flagstaff.