Student deliberately started deadly Mahdia dorm blaze – State tells court

The State has rejected allegations of negligence and wrongdoing arising from the May 2023 Mahdia Secondary School female dormitory fire, which claimed the lives of 20 children.

The position was contained in a defence filed on August 31, 2026, by Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall, SC, in response to a lawsuit brought by the estates and representatives of 11 of the children who died in the tragedy.

The matter is before the High Court in Demerara under the title The Estates of Ariana Arlene Edwards and others v The Attorney General of Guyana. The defence denied the allegations contained in the claim and asked the court to dismiss the proceedings.

The state is represented by Nandlall, King’s Counsel Darshan Ramdhani and Attorney-at-Law CV Satram, while the claimants are represented by Attorney-at-Law Darren Wade.

The lawsuit stemmed from the fire that destroyed the female dormitory on the night of May 21, 2023. According to the Defence, the fire started at about 23:00h, after which the House Mother and others responded to screams coming from the dormitory.

The Government said the Matron took “reasonable action to facilitate the safe exit” of students, while several students escaped or were pulled from the building through windows.

The Defence said firefighters and civilians rescued 28 persons from the burning building. It stated that the fire was reported to the Mahdia Fire Station at about 23:12h, after which fire officers went to the scene and attempted to extinguish the blaze.

The Government maintained that injured students were transported to the Mahdia District Hospital for emergency treatment.

The Defence also detailed the Government’s emergency response following the fire.

All hands on deck

It said that shortly after midnight, a doctor at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) was informed of the tragedy and asked to organise a medical response.

A team comprising two burns specialists and two Emergency Room doctors was assembled at Eugene F Correia International Airport to travel to Mahdia.

The Defence further stated that by approximately 01:15h on May 22, President Dr Irfaan Ali, Prime Minister Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips, and other senior Government officials were at Eugene F Correia International Airport awaiting transportation to Mahdia.

“Preparations were also made for the transport of these doctors, Government officials, and medical supplies into Mahdia,” the Defence stated.

By the time the medical aircraft arrived, medical personnel were treating injured students at the Mahdia District Hospital, while most critically injured students had already been transported to the airstrip for evacuation to Georgetown.

The Defence stated, “Indeed, by this time, the Government had mobilised doctors, nurses, pilots and other flight crew, members of the Guyana Defence Force, Cabinet members, and their teams – all in an effort to have all hands on deck to assist with the swift and careful treatment and evacuation of the students at the Mahdia dormitories.”

The Defence submitted that the Mahdia Fire Station had extinguished the blaze by about 03:00h and discovered the bodies of 14 deceased persons inside the dormitory.

It added that 19 injured students remained at the Mahdia District Hospital, including 13 who were considered stable and six who were critical. All 19 were subsequently transferred to the GPHC for advanced medical care. One student was later transferred to Mount Sinai Health Center in New York for specialised treatment.

Financial Assistance

The Government also said it fully covered funeral and burial expenses for the deceased students and the five-year-old boy who died in the blaze. The Defence further addressed financial assistance offered to families of victims and injured survivors.

According to the Defence, the Government offered families of the deceased lump-sum financial assistance of $5 million, separate from the assistance provided immediately after the fire.

For injured survivors, the Defence stated that $3 million was offered to students whose injuries were assessed as serious by medical doctors, while $500,000 was offered to those whose injuries were deemed less serious.

The Government said the lump-sum assistance was separate from the immediate support provided after the fire and was intended, among other things, to assist with medical treatment and medication required outside public medical facilities.

The Defence stated that the AG and his team travelled to Mahdia on July 3 and 4, 2023, to meet with families and explain the financial assistance offer.

Families that accepted the offer were asked to sign agreements acknowledging that they had received independent legal advice from a lawyer of their choice.

The Government said the exercise was repeated on July 31 and August 1, 2023, and that all families of the victims, except two, had accepted the offer of financial assistance.

On fire prevention, the Government said measures had been in place before the tragedy.

The Defence stated that during Fire Safety Week in October 2022, members of the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) had visited Government agencies in Mahdia, including the school dormitories, where fire-safety training had been conducted.

Teachers and students had been taught how to use fire extinguishers and had been provided with evacuation plans for the school and dormitories.

The Government further stated that fire drills had been conducted once per month at the Mahdia Nursery and Primary and Secondary Schools.

Deliberate act of a 3rd party

The state rejected the allegation that it had exposed the now deceased students to an unreasonable, foreseeable, or avoidable risk of death or serious bodily injury.

It maintained that the Police investigation had established that the fire was caused by “the deliberate, intentional, and malicious act of a third party”, identified as a student housed in the female dormitory following the confiscation of her cellular phone.

The Defence submitted that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) subsequently recommended that the student be charged and that, by July 4, 2023, she had been charged with 20 counts of murder.
The Government maintained that the circumstances surrounding the fire did not establish negligence, a constitutional violation, or impropriety on its part.

The Defence stated, “In all the circumstances, as tragic as the events of 21st May, 2023 at the Mahdia Female Dormitory were, the Defendant denies any allegation of negligence, constitutional violation or impropriety on the part of its servants and/or agents.”

The state also described the lawsuit as “specious, misconceived in law” and asked the court to dismiss it with costs.

The filing comes as the compensation dispute returns to the High Court, following an earlier decision by Acting Chief Justice Navindra Singh to allow the families’ claims to proceed to a full hearing rather than have them struck out.

The substantive hearing is expected to address the circumstances surrounding the compensation agreements, including whether the agreements were legally valid and whether the families were bound by the terms attached to the Government’s compensation offers.

The related matters are scheduled to return to the High Court for a Case Management Conference (CMC) in November 2026, when directions for the further conduct of the proceedings are expected to be given.