SANTA CRUZ, Honduras (AP) -- More than a dozen people hunting rabbits being smoked out of a Honduran sugarcane field were engulfed by the fast-moving flames. Eleven children and four adults died, and an 18-year-old was being treated for burns.
Workers deliberately set the fire Monday night to clear the sugarcane fields of animals and other debris before harvest, a common practice.
Adults and children ranging in age from 5 to 17 were in a nearby field waiting to catch rabbits as they fled when the blaze suddenly spread, said Security Ministry spokesman Leonel Sauceda.
Firefighters said the fire confused the victims, who began stripping off their clothes and running toward the blaze in an effort to escape the heat. Employees of the sugar company were not aware the children and adults were nearby until they heard their screams.
The 40-acre field belonged to the Choluteca sugar company in Santa Cruz, 100 miles south of the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.
On Tuesday evening, about 150 people gathered to bury nine of the children. Weeping family members and friends laid flowers and potted plants beside the coffins before men in cowboy hats lowered them into the ground.
Emil Hawit, Honduras chief prosecutor for environmental affairs, said authorities were investigating to see if the Choluteca sugar company could be accused of negligence. No charges had been filed as of early Wednesday.
``Even though it's true the poverty of these people caused the tragedy, we should also determine if the company is at fault,'' Hawit said.
But President Ricardo Maduro, who toured the area where the fire occurred and met with family members of the victims on Tuesday, said more study was needed to determine if it was really necessary to torch cane fields at the start of harvests.
It is common practice for poor residents living near sugar companies take advantage of the fires to hunt wild animals that scatter from the undergrowth to escape the flames.
``We will do everything necessary so that similar tragedies don't happen in this country,'' he said. ``This entire community is in pain, and it is really sad.''
Braulio Cruz, general manager of the company that controlled the cane field, said his officials did nothing wrong but that ``the accident obligates us to improve the process of cutting cane.''
``Of course there are better ways of doing this work,'' Cruz said. ``But this company does not have sufficient funds to use them.''
In the future, officials said they plan to post guards around sugarcane fields before setting them on fire, an effort to keep residents away from the flames.
In the United States, notices are posted before most burns, and warnings are played over a loudspeaker in both Spanish and English to clear anyone from a field. Still, in March, 2003, five illegal immigrants were killed while sleeping in a sugarcane field in Texas while on their way to a cousin's home in New York.
