Guest House burns

There was another fire in Belize City this week, this time at a guesthouse. News 5 was on the scene and spoke with two guests who had checked in just an hour before the fire started.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

Flames, smoke and ashes filled the night skies above the north side of the city as fire engulfed a two storey structure at number seven Eve Street. The building was used as a guest house, store and residence. The blaze started around eight on Friday night and it was not long after that a crowd gathered at scene including tourist who had only checked in the downtown guest house just before it started to burn

Benny Orwel & Kate Pratschi, Fire Victims

?We checked in about an hour before it started burning. Yes we went for dinner and then there was a blackout and then we have this here. It?s really horrible. We lost everything. Everything we had. Well I still have my credit cards and I still have my passport but that is about it for the rest everything is gone.?

?We were at the restaurant just about one hundred meters further up and somebody told us well there was a fire. We kind of run over and check to see if it was our hotel and somebody told us, it wasn?t but apparently it was.?

Henry Baizar, Fire Chief

?When we arrived there, the whole of the guest house was on fire and the guys quickly got into operation and within forty minutes or so we got it under control.?

Fire chief Henry Baizar says their investigation reveal that it was a faulty electrical wiring in one of the nine guest rooms that caused the blaze.

Henry Baizar

?The following day went there and we went through all the debris and moved out different things a discovered it was electrical faults. We had a thorough investigation the following day.?

The first floor, which occupied the Guest House and a residence, was totally destroyed while the ground floor that housed a shop suffered water and smoke damage. The building is owned by Kenny Tsui and was insured for a total of fifty-three thousand dollars.

Henry Baizar

?I think the guys did and extremely good job and they didn?t have much difficulties. We responded with two vehicles and within the next twelve minutes another vehicle was out there. A canal was close and that was where we got most of our water supply from and also from a hydrant that was nearby. We spoke to BEL and they boosted up the system rather quickly and we had no problem with extinguishing the flames.?

However, that was not the case on October twenty-first, when a fire occurred on Usher Street and left thirteen people homeless. In that incident, The National Fire Service was criticized for not having the proper equipment to extinguish the flames. People in the area complained mostly about busted fire hoses. Today, however, Baizar says following internal investigations, they have concluded that it was an electrical problem that caused the delay but that the houses affected would have still burned. Baizar categorically denies the report that his men arrived with damaged hoses.

Henry Baizar

?The truck that went to the open source had some problems with the gauges that decide how much water you send to the fire scene. Our hoses are tested–and we normally fight fire with atleast one hundred or the most one hundred and fifty PSI. We test our hoses for much more than that so that when we get to the fire scence, the pressure that goes to the hose, the hose can withstand that pressure. But what happened, because there was a faulty gauge on the truck at that time, more than the required amount of pressure was going through the hose and it started bursting the hoses left right and centre.?

?When we arrived at that fire scene, there were three houses on fire. One was already falling and those were the same three houses we found on fire; no other house burned.?

Jacqueline Woods

?So the three houses were already on fire?

Henry Baizar

?Yes, when we got there, the three houses were already on fire and we contained the fire within those three houses.?

Baizar says there is nothing they can do to prevent the problem that occurred, but that they will continue to check their equipment following every fire that they have responded. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.

In connection with Friday’s fire, a woman has reported to police that after a young man offered to help her move items from her house situated to the back of the burning building, she later noticed that a box containing some jewellery was missing. Authorities are investigating that report.