Frederick Street houses destroyed by fire taken down

Last week, we showed you the houses that were destroyed by fire on Frederick Street in Belize City. Well, those torched structures have been taken down and the rubble cleared out. Today we found CEMO’s point man Philip Willoughby on site and he tells us that the work fits in with CEMO’s bigger plan to remove old abandoned buildings that are health and safety hazards.

Philip Willoughby, CEMO

“The fire department along with the Belize City Council’s sanitation department have successfully to this end taken down the two burnt structures and right now what you see is happening is the clearing of the properties.”

Andrea Polanco

“Talk to us about doing this kind of clean up when we have these kinds of structures; what does it mean for the work of CEMO and for this community?”

Philip Willoughby

Philip Willoughby

“Well, it complements the wider scope of removing these abandoned properties and the removal of these derelict buildings. It is a grave concern for us because you, as a homeowner or renting a building from someone as tenant, spend your lifetime either building your home, furnishing it. For those who are fortunate and blessed to insure their assets – great – but for those who cannot it is a lifetime of work, sweat and tears going up in smoke in the blink of an eye. So, that is why the Council will continue to be proactive in fighting to take down these abandoned and derelict structures; dealing with the abandoned lots across the City need to be taken care of. This is just complementing what you see as continuous and ongoing across the city and it is of concern for us on more than one reason; health, crime, substance abusers and that kind of thing.”