Electrical fault blamed for S.C. Valley fire

On Tuesday their tiny bodies were trapped inside a burning building and they perished in the inferno. Today, fire officials blame an electrical fault as the cause of the fire which claimed the lives of three year-old Xina Williams and her brother, four year-old Francisco, of eighteen and a half miles on the Stann Creek Valley Road. Assistant Fire Chief, Ted Smith, says the Fire Department’s findings are that an old electrical cord which fed power to the twenty by ten foot wooden structure caught fire. The cord, which was connected to the television that the children were watching, coincidentally blocked the door, the youngsters’ only means of exit. The two windows which stood at the other end of the room from the door, were out of the children’s reach, and it seems that in panic they sought refuge on a bed, which was soon engulfed in flames. The children’s mother, Flordelma Gutierrez, had gone to make a purchase at the roadside, leaving the boy and girl alone in the building, which was totally destroyed.