The "small" Octavio Paz Primary school has more than 350+ students. There are also 2 kinders in the colonia. To be perfectly honest, it is too early to know exactly how many school children have been devastated by the fire. We will meet with DIF on Thursday.

Carol's email began the process. The $3,000+ usd donations were in response to her plea. It was certainly more than we expected and should be sufficient to outfit 100% of the students; 2 or 3 uniforms/gym clothes (depending on age), school/gym shoes, backpacks, socks & underwear, school supplies including calculators. etc)

I posted on Rob's site in response to the question, "How may people in the U.S. donate?" because it provided an option for those who might wish to use it.

Por Los Ninos (founded in 2005) and Los Ninos, Inc(founded in 2004) are financially independent, government-registered charities that work in partnership with the city government, Rotary clubs and individual donors. Each files annual tax returns in their respective countries.

When one clicks "donate" on the Por Los Ninos website, one is forwarded to
the Los Ninos donation page where the PayPal account lives. Educational donations are wire-transfered to the Por Los Ninos bank account in Zihua. Donations designated for other purposes are deposited in the Los Ninos account in Portland and are withdrawn via ATM in Zihua.

Once the budget for the students is confirmed, all other donations received will go toward the recovery of the families in consultation with DIF.

Carol and I serve on the board of directors and executive committees of both charities. The activities of Los Ninos, Inc are also monitored by the Oregon Department of Justice (as are all Oregon charities). We are proud of our 14-year tradition of transparency.

Have I cleared everything up? Or just made it more confusing?

p.s. We are now approaching $5,000usd in donations with additional donations promised.

How Tragic.

Carol Romain, the new administrator of Por Los Ninos, sent an email plea to our Sailfest/Por Los Ninos volunteers. Within two hours, they have responded with more than $3,000.usd in donations for the devastated families. We expect more to follow thru our sister charity in Portland, Oregon.

Mexican law limits our Por Los Ninos non-profit funding to educational purposes. We are stretching that definition to donate an additional $20,000 pesos from existing funds for food under the category of student nutrition.

Those folks in the United States and Canada may join our efforts by donating on-line thru www.porlosninos.com. You will receive a U.S.tax receipt from our sister (501)(C3) public-benefit charity, Los Ninos, Inc, in Portland, Oregon. These are the funds that will be used to help the families, combined with the volunteer donations noted above.

As Carol often remarks, "We have two hands, one to help our selves, and one to help others".

Carol's msg read:
Por Los Ninos del Municipio de Zihua will accept your tax deductible donations to help the students who were burned out in yesterdays fire in the colonias near Octavio Paz School. A fire is a terrible thing to go through but at Christmas even worse. 100% of your donations will go directly to the kids to purchase the things they need to return to school in January. Uniforms, shoes, underwear, backpacks. lets show them what we are made of!

I am confused between her's and yours. You state you have already received 60,000 pesos(which were collected with a premise that 100% would be spent for school supplis FOR THE STUDENTS and want to spend 20,000 for food. 40,000 pesos still seems a lot for uniforms, etc for the students of this small school and now you are saying "help the families"
I do not doubt Carol's good intentions at all but the extranjero's sending money and the Mexican gov't need transparency.

Carol Romain, the new administrator of Por Los Ninos, sent an email plea to our Sailfest/Por Los Ninos volunteers. Within two hours, they have responded with more than $3,000.usd in donations for the devastated families. We expect more to follow thru our sister charity in Portland, Oregon.

Mexican law limits our Por Los Ninos non-profit funding to educational purposes. We are stretching that definition to donate an additional $20,000 pesos from existing funds for food under the category of student nutrition.

Those folks in the United States and Canada may join our efforts by donating on-line thru www.porlosninos.com. You will receive a U.S.tax receipt from our sister (501)(C3) public-benefit charity, Los Ninos, Inc, in Portland, Oregon. These are the funds that will be used to help the families, combined with the volunteer donations noted above.

As Carol often remarks, "We have two hands, one to help our selves, and one to help others".

So incredibly sad. Those poor people.

And animals. One thing that is going on is dozens of pets that managed to escape the flames are now wandering the hillside looking for their families.

Some folks managed to make it to the shelter with their pets, so one of the things that is needed is also pet food.

There is still no final tally of the homes destroyed or of the number of people who lost their homes. What is known is that apparently there were not any human deaths, but there were deaths of animals that were tied up or otherwise unable to escape. Preliminary numbers indicate there were over 187 homes and over 400 people affected. The cause of the fire appears to have been fireworks in the hands of children that hit power lines.

The area that burned was mostly one of the colonias irregulares, an area that was part of our ecological zone but that was allowed to be invaded by irresponsible municipal authorities. This event underscores why such colonias should not be allowed and why urban planning is so important. Most of these folks are victims of unscrupulous people who seek to profit from other people's poverty and poor education. Hopefully they will now be relocated to a more adequate area where neighborhoods can be properly planned and where it's much easier to provide public services.

The mayor Jorge Sánchez was in the middle of the firefighting efforts, and his timely response was the best I've ever seen one of our mayors ever respond to a disaster of any kind. This is the biggest disaster to ever affect Zihuatanejo.

This is what I learned, based on what DIF told me late this afternoon:
No humans died, but animals did. About 150 homes were destroyed. Inside the auditorium an area was set aside for families. In another area volunteers were sorting out ***donated*** clothes and personal items. Another area was for food. I didn't recognize anyone from restaurants, but I assume and hope most will donate food.

*** DONATIONS NEEDED! DIF needs food and water, diapers, personal hygiene items, towels, mattresses, blankets, sheets, shoes, clothing (for children, men, women). In short, they need everything. They can also use money. One of the officials I spoke to (sorry can't remember her name) said that DIF wants everything to be aboveboard and transparent. The DIF office (behind the central market) will be open Thursday. I am supposed to get an acct. # that I will post if you want to make a donation via your bank or perhaps online.

FOR NOW, please bring whatever you can to the municipal auditorium which is located at the end of Mar Mediterráneo (the side street where Tel Mex sits (Mar de Java / Mar Mediterráneo). Google map it.

It appears the fire was started by bottle rockets or a similar type of launched fireworks. The word “cohetes” is what is being used to describe the conflagration’s origin.

I just realized we also use the slang term “cuete” to refer to fireworks in general even though the original sources described them as “cohetes”. So apparently the fire was started by the careless use of fireworks whose sale is supposed to be prohibited here but vendors can be found easily at numerous locations. There is a new local hashtag going around: #NoMásCuetes

Gobierno de Zihuatanejo ACTUALIZACION

Debido al incendio registrado en la Colonia Buenos Aires hemos habilitado como albergue temporal y centro de acopio el Auditorio Municipal.

En la Zona, se encuentra La Marina, Protección Civil de Guerrero y Zihuatanejo, trabajando en sofocar el incendio.

I hate to say this was entirely predictable, but... I’ve seen those hills burn a few times before they were populated.

As soon as there are details to report I’ll do so. I watched firefighters and neighbors fight the huge blaze valiantly, but the wind and the terrain made getting ahead of it impossible. It was a true horror show as house after house went up in flames as surely did numerous businesses. There was also at least one huge explosion that shook the ground where I was.