Fire guts Belize City house

This weekend fire enveloped a two-storey wooden house at 3 Mayflower Street in Belize City, leaving the Smith family who occupied the upper flat, homeless. According to Marsha Smith, who lived in the lower flat, around five o’clock on Saturday morning she heard screaming coming from upstairs.

Marsha Smith, Fire Victim

“I run to the back and then I heard them saying get water, so I ran, but the water was not pouring, there was no water pressure. So I ran into my house and wake my kids and my gentleman. I wake him and told him fire is upstairs, so he ran through the door to see, then came back saying get the kids out because this will not stop. Everyone from upstairs ran out.”

Ann-Marie Williams

“Some were still sleeping though?”

Marsha Smith

“Yes. Some were still sleeping. One of my nephews even went back inside to try to save some things, and he was hit by a board on his face, which was on fire. Thank God he is all right! We had a little chihuahua puppy, he was burnt.”

Ann-Marie Williams

“Did you all save anything from the upstairs?”

Marsha Smith

“Upstairs didn’t save anything. I managed to save a few pieces from the downstairs, but otherwise everything gone.”

Ann-Marie Williams

“Did they put out the fire quickly?”

Marsha Smith

“I have to say yes because if they didn’t come, other houses would have burnt. We even told them when they were spraying our house, to leave it because it was already burnt and attend to the neighbour’s house because we didn’t want it to catch fire.”

Smith says the house, which sheltered several generations of the Smith family, was not insured.