Two buildings destroyed in San Pedro fire
It was a tragic twist on the rhyme of the ancient mariner. San Pedranos on Friday night found themselves with “water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink”… or to extinguish a raging fire. With the Caribbean Sea only a coconut’s toss from the flames two buildings were destroyed and several others were lucky to escape.
The fire started just before eight on Barrier Reef Drive. The blaze, which completely destroyed the Valdez and Nelder residence, also wiped out three businesses, the Thousand and One Boutique, the Book Centre and the Art Gallery. Gonzalo Valdez, who said he lost about seventy-five thousand dollars worth of household possessions, lived upstairs of the Book Centre. Valdez says he was sleeping until suddenly awakened by the heat and flames next door.
Gonzalo Valdez, Fire Victim
“The flames of the house was coming and then I wake up my wife and told her to run out because the flames were coming to my house and so we get out of my house.”
Q: “Were you able to save anything?”
Gonzalo Valdez
“A few, little things, not much.”
The town’s only fire truck arrived on the scene several minutes after receiving the call. But it soon became painfully clear that there would be little that the service could do to save any of the buildings.
Gonzalo Valdez
“Well I was right there on the street when the fire pump come. They start but the system of the car did not work.”
Celi McCorkle, Owner, San Pedro Holiday Hotel
“In my opinion the second building belonging to Mr. Valdez should not have burnt. When they got there with the fire truck and they were on the beach, the fire was still contained in
that main building. They could because I kept hollering to them that people kept saying to turn the water and they said we know but they could never, never; they never got the pump going.”
As the buildings burned, the flames started spreading across the street and began to threat Ruby’s Hotel and the San Pedro Holiday Hotel.
Celi McCorkle
“By the time we saw it, the first explosion happened, the north wind came and then our building started to smoke, the corner of one of our buildings.”
Quickly, San Pedranos joined by tourists formed a bucket brigade and started pouring water onto the hotels and adjacent buildings.
Alberto Nuñez, Mayor, San Pedro Town
“Well at first it was very, very disappointing because everybody expected the fire truck to do the service but when the people noticed that that wasn’t coming through, then everybody started getting buckets and moving with the buckets. I would say they had maybe a thousand people moving buckets from the beach to the sea to the fire side. We had women, tourists, locals we had everybody moving with the buckets and pouring water on the fire.”
Celi McCorkle
“And the other thing that save us was that we had extra long hoses on the hotel and we were able to connect it and they were able to wet the buildings.
And then my nephew, Eddie had the presence of mind that we had this huge tank above the building and he broke it and when he broke it, that’s when all the water started coming down and really that’s what saved it.”
Although no one at the fire station would talk to us on camera, saying they would need to get permission from their headquarters, they told us that there were a number of obstacles that hindered their efforts to fight the fire.
Jacqueline Woods
“These concrete barriers were constructed to stop vehicles from going onto the beach but firemen say when the blaze broke out Friday night, these barriers delayed them from getting water from the sea.”
But once the truck got to the beach, the firemen discovered that the vehicle’s pump had a mechanical problem that rendered it useless. According to Norris Fisher, the Administrative Personnel Officer of the National Fire Service, the wheel that turns the pump apparently was worn. Fisher contends the firemen did the best they could under the circumstances.
Norris Fisher, Fire Department Personnel Officer
“The truck went there and it started working and about five minutes into pumping the pump actually stop work. There was no water. The fireman then used his initiative and he went to the fire hydrant by the airstrip and ran sufficient hose to the fire. There was a delay of about fifteen minutes.”
However, a source tells News Five that the pump is new and that all the firemen needed to do to make it work was tighten a screw. The area representative, Patty Arceo says she could not understand why the fire service failed because just one month ago a fire drill was held in the same vicinity.
Patty Arceo, Area Representative
“We simulated a fire drill around that same corner and the volunteers, the community and everybody came out and the machine was doing just perfect. But now that we had the real fire, it seems as if there was a mechanical error. What it is I cannot say; I do not have the report with me but as soon as we have it we will give it out to the people to know what is happening.”
Just as the community pulled together to fight the blaze, on Sunday they once again came together in a radiothon to raise funds for the fire victims. The goal: forty thousand dollars.
Radio Announcer
“Ladies and gentlemen in about two hours only, we have done one half of our target which tells us that before sunset we will have surpassed our target.”
Patty Arceo
“A fire we never know who it will hit; it doesn’t have any social measures or anything like that. So what we are trying to do is gather up money so we can give the feeling of Christmas to these people.”
By the end of the day, over seventy thousand dollars was pledged and almost half already collected.
The origin of the fire has not been determined conclusively but fire officials have ruled out electrical problems as a possible cause. It appears that only the building owned by Juan Alamilla was insured. Prior to the fire the island was slated to receive a new fire truck and some portable pumps.
