Father, Son Displaced By Fire
On Monday, a fire broke dangerously close to a gas station in Belize City. Quick response from fire-fighters led to the extinguishing of the blaze before it spread to destroy adjacent structures. A father and his son were able to get out in time. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Around four o’clock on March eighth, a fire broke on the upper flat of a two-storey structure off Cemetery Road in Belize City. It was occupied by Terrace Garnett and his son, who escaped only with the clothes on their backs.
Hilberto Romero
Sr. Supt. Hilberto Romero, Deputy Head, National Crimes Investigation Branch
“Garnett reported that he was at home when he smelt that something was burning in the living room. He came outside and saw that the entire house was engulfed in flames.”
The scene of the fire was in proximity to a number of adjacent structures, including the UNO Gas Station at the intersection of Cemetery Road and Central American Boulevard. But personnel from the National Fire Service were swift to contain the blaze and prevent its spread to avoid a worst case scenario.
Kenneth Mortis
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, National Fire Service
“The upper portion of the building was fully engulfed in flames and it created quite a fright. The fire department team quickly and I mean quickly went into fire fighting mode whereby we observed that if we had been probably two minutes hesitant than normal, it could have been a fiasco; we would have still been fighting the fire up to today day. We managed to subdue that fire, bring it under control, concentrating the damage to the initial structure that was ablaze.”
An investigation suggests that a faulty electrical wiring in the upper flat of the building caused the fire.
Kenneth Mortis
“We determined that the fire somehow started directly from the room where Mister Garnett stated. We narrowed it down to that of an electrical flaw seeing that there isn’t any other factor. We learnt that the building is of age, it’s over twenty-something plus years. The proper electrical maintenance wasn’t conducted and we’ve had history of that building before and unfortunately, this is the result whereby the sole tenant of that establishment lost everything.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
