5 young boys left alone light straw fire, suffocate
By Li Qian |
February 20, 2013, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
FIVE boys ranging in age from four to six died, apparently from suffocation, in an abandoned building where they burned straw on Monday evening as their parents were busy organizing a wedding in southwest China's Guizhou Province.
It was the second case of its kind in the province within three months.
The five children were found in a deserted building that had been used for tobacco curing by local villagers in Majiang County at 5:40pm, local officials said.
Four of the boys were dead at the scene and a fifth died at the hospital. They belong to five families, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
Their parents were busy with the wedding and left them alone, an initial investigation showed. They burned damp straw in the mud brick house, possibly to keep warm, which is thought to have deprived them of oxygen.
No charges had been filed in the case.
The five have already been buried according to local ethnic customs that call for deceased children to be buried quickly, officials said.
The provincial Party committee sent each victim's family 22,000 yuan (US$3,522) in cash and 100 kilograms of rice as relief assistance, state-run China Central Television Station reported.
On November 16, five boys from the same extended family, aged nine to 13, were found dead in the province's Bijie City in a trash bin.
Autopsies showed they died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Remains of burned charcoal were found inside the bin, indicating that they suffocated while trying to keep warm by burning charcoal in that cramped bin. They were living on the street after dropping out school and had not been seen for weeks. Their family hadn't reported them missing. Eight officials were punished.
It was the second case of its kind in the province within three months.
The five children were found in a deserted building that had been used for tobacco curing by local villagers in Majiang County at 5:40pm, local officials said.
Four of the boys were dead at the scene and a fifth died at the hospital. They belong to five families, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
Their parents were busy with the wedding and left them alone, an initial investigation showed. They burned damp straw in the mud brick house, possibly to keep warm, which is thought to have deprived them of oxygen.
No charges had been filed in the case.
The five have already been buried according to local ethnic customs that call for deceased children to be buried quickly, officials said.
The provincial Party committee sent each victim's family 22,000 yuan (US$3,522) in cash and 100 kilograms of rice as relief assistance, state-run China Central Television Station reported.
On November 16, five boys from the same extended family, aged nine to 13, were found dead in the province's Bijie City in a trash bin.
Autopsies showed they died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Remains of burned charcoal were found inside the bin, indicating that they suffocated while trying to keep warm by burning charcoal in that cramped bin. They were living on the street after dropping out school and had not been seen for weeks. Their family hadn't reported them missing. Eight officials were punished.
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