Fire in Ladyville burns close to homes
On Monday night, fires ignited in two different locations: in an open lot in Ladyville and at mile two and a half on the Western Highway. Fire fighters were alerted shortly after seven of the infernos and immediately dispatched teams to the areas. It was not until five hours after that both fires were extinguished. Trainer Officer of the Fire Department, Kenneth Mortis spoke to News Five about the fires.
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, Fire Department
“We had one for Japan area Ladyville last night and we responded and it was a massive fire. It was a fire so large that the closest attack for reaching this fire was approximately three hundred feet away from the nearest access, which had been the road side. Of course, we had neighbours who were a bit frightened by the blaze. Their houses were approximately fifty to a hundred feet away from the blaze was at. Our team fought the fire for excess amount of hours, almost four hours before eventually extinguishing it.”
Duane Moody
“When did it get extinguished noh?”
Kenneth Mortis
“We totally extinguished the fire some time after twelve this morning after we deployed our trucks from station some time after seven; probably seven-thirty more or less. Of course, in the process we received numerous calls about the fire. Like I said, it was a very frightening sight but we did what we could have done and the best of what we could have done it with.”
Duane Moody
“Did any house nearby in that area get scorched or anything of that sort?”
Kenneth Mortis
“Luckily, no houses got any fire damage such as scorched or anything like that. So we managed to extinguish it before structural damage could have been done.”
Latoya Anderson
This is my uncles house, the fire started all the way from that direction and it wasn’t that worse but people were just sitting around and thinking that the fire would not get worse but now, as you see, it’s getting very worse. Well, so far my boyfriend and cousin and brothers are trying t out the fire by wetting the fence and stuff. But that’s all fi now. So I wish the fire outed nobody get hurt and no house burn down or nothing.”
Duane Moody
“There was also one on Holy Emmanuel Street. That is about two and a half miles on the Western Highway noh. What of that? I do believe it was garbage that was actually being burnt?”
Kenneth Mortis
“Yeah, Holy Emmanuel Street—we had two separate fires on the same call. One was a very larger one than the other and it was a pile of garbage, rubbish, dirt, all sorts of stuff. It was a miniature dump pile and it’s amazing to see a mini dump pile almost within the city limits. Now again, a garbage fire of this magnitude could have possibly been set or the possibility of it burning from a long time could have been there and then eventually it just erupted into flames as to what we have last night. We have three trucks. We have two trucks here at the headquarters and one on Dolphin Street. Ladyville took away two trucks and Holy Emmanuel took away one truck. Luckily for us, we’re at a time when we’re having our recruit training so we have twenty-two extra recruits readily available. If anything occurs after the five o’clock hours, from that twenty-two we have eleven that is readily available, stationed in the event that some thing like last night should occur so manpower would not be an issue.”
According to Mortis, the causes of both fires are unknown.
And in an update to the inferno on Sunday evening at the Corozal Free Zone that destroyed the Macal Plaza, there is no official word on the cause of the fire. But in nearby Chetumal, the media is reporting that the blaze was caused by electrical problems. Six stores were destroyed and twenty employees were left jobless for approximately a month.
