A three-year-old girl died today, February 4, after being trapped inside a burning house in San Narciso Village, Corozal District. Corozal police responded to a call around 4:10 a.m. today and found the wooden house completely destroyed by fire.

The body of a female child identified as three-year-old Danely Shaniri Guadalupe Cabrera was found under a metal crib, completely burned. The child was taken to the Corozal Community Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

The mother, Ramona Cabrera, 40, is a shopkeeper at the Corozal Free Zone. According to reports, Cabrera was sleeping with the child and at about 4:00 a.m. she was awakened by fire on her mattress. The house did not have electricity; the suspected cause of the fire is from a candle that was lit in the room.

The fire chief said that the candle fell on the mattress and the mother pulled the mattress away, but it got on top of the gas tank and burst the hose, causing the fire to spread.

Cabrera ran out of house to get help, leaving the young child inside. A witness said that no one was able to get back inside the house because of the heat.

While struggling to get the mattress out of the house, Cabrera was injured. She was taken to the Corozal Community Hospital, where she was treated for first degree burns on her face and back and second degree burns to her left and right arms.