HERMOSILLO, Mexico, (Reuters) – The death toll from  a fire at a day-care center in Mexico rose to 41 children yesterday and a dozen more were fighting for their lives in  hospitals.

The northern city of Hermosillo was in mourning after a  blaze spread through the ABC day-care center there on Friday,  killing babies and toddlers as parents and employees raced  desperately to rescue them.

“In the past few hours three more have died,” Sonora state  Health Minister Raymundo Lopez told reporters. “Twelve of the  22 hospitalized children are in grave condition.”

Pope Benedict said he was “deeply pained” and sent his  condolences to the victims’ families, saying he would pray for  them.
Smoke inhalation killed many of the children, who ranged in age from a few months to three.

It was unclear where or how the fire started, although it  may have broken out in a nearby warehouse in an industrial  neighborhood, the government said.

As flames blocked the center’s doorway, employees and  bystanders used cars to punch holes through a wall, stumbling  over unconscious infants and toddlers as they tried to find  them and get them out, witnesses said.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has ordered an  investigation and visited victims on Saturday at hospitals in  Hermosillo, a city of about 700,000.
“Which is your favorite Power Ranger? You look stronger  than the Power Rangers,” Calderon told one bedridden toddler,  referring to a children’s television program.

Yesterday, funerals continued, with some 20 empty graves  waiting at a local cemetery.
“I’ll always be your father,” said one parent as weeping  friends and family crowded around a small coffin.
At another ceremony, people released white balloons into  the air as a coffin strewn with flowers was lowered into the  ground.