{"id":56960,"date":"2026-07-19T12:39:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T12:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/algeria-orphanage-fire-air-conditioner-sparked-deadly-blaze-police\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T12:39:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T12:39:05","slug":"algeria-orphanage-fire-air-conditioner-sparked-deadly-blaze-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/algeria-orphanage-fire-air-conditioner-sparked-deadly-blaze-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Algeria orphanage fire: Air conditioner sparked deadly blaze &#8211; police"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Algeria is experiencing an intense summer heatwave with firefighters also battling several wildfires across the north of the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">News of the orphanage fire has shocked and outraged many.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DGPCDZ\/posts\/pfbid0pfN5zrXCMijvVN4LQFSuU6JkUap3VyEZHvYV1d5a46URLowyEcwFq2tmbGMxsQYtl\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">&#8220;May God have mercy on them,&#8221; the civil defence unit said<span class=\"visually-hidden ssrcss-i2z2ig-VisuallyHidden e16en2lz0\">, <!-- -->external<\/span><\/a> as it announced the death toll on Thursday, several hours after the blaze began.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">President Tebboune said in a statement: &#8220;It is with a heart resigned to the will of God that I learned of the death of children and the injury of others.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The authorities said five children with reduced mobility had been safely rescued from the blaze. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The fire has prompted opposition figures, critical media and social media users to demand answers over possible negligence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The opposition Jil Jadid party called for a transparent investigation into the incident and legal accountability for any negligence or safety failures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It also demanded a nationwide review of fire safety standards at orphanages, care homes, hospitals and schools.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Journalist Akram Kharief described the fire as a &#8220;national tragedy&#8221;, called for fire safety audits at all public institutions and questioned why Algerians could not live &#8220;a normal life in a normal country&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Comments on the social media pages of several news outlets wanted to know who had been supervising the children overnight, while some called for resignations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Meanwhile, Le Matin d&#8217;Alg\u00e9rie &#8211; a website critical of the government &#8211; noted the absence of the mayor and provincial governor during the initial rescue operation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Pro-government news site Algerie Patriotique said the country should establish the truth &#8220;without complacency&#8221; and determine whether the deaths could have been prevented.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><i class=\"ssrcss-xbdn93-ItalicText e5tfeyi2\">Additional reporting by Natasha Booty<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c9d8ylw60e9o?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Algeria is experiencing an intense summer heatwave with firefighters also battling several wildfires across the north of the country. News of the orphanage fire has shocked and outraged many. &#8220;May God have mercy on them,&#8221; the civil defence unit said, external as it announced the death toll on Thursday, several hours after the blaze began. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56962,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56960\/revisions\/56962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}