Mexico day-care fire caused by air conditioner

Authorities are investigating whether owners, employees or government officials could face negligence charges after a fire raged through the ABC day-care in the northern city of Hermosillo on Friday, Attorney-General Eduardo Medina Mora said.

"The fire was caused by the overheating of an air conditioner due to continuous and prolonged use," Medina Mora told reporters.

After melted aluminium from the air conditioner ignited paper on the floor of the warehouse, where the state government stored licence plates and documents, heat and fire spread into the rafters of the industrial building and across to the day-care centre, he said.

He said nobody was in the warehouse when the fire started and that its doors were locked.

As the smoke poured from the day-care centre, bystanders and firemen punched holes through its brick walls to reach the infants and toddlers. Questions have been raised about whether evacuation routes in the building may have been blocked.

More than 140 children were in the centre when the fire broke out, the government says. The facility had passed its last government inspection in May.

Some severely burnt children have been flown to specialist hospitals, including the Shriners children's hospital in Sacramento, California.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich; editing by Mohammad Zargham)