Illegal Electric Connection Blamed for Blaze on Faber’s Road

Kenneth Mortis

And in another incident in Belize City, this time on Faber’s Road, a mother and daughter lost everything in their zinc house when their dwelling went up in flames. Fire officials say illegal electrical wiring from a lamppost caused the Sunday blaze. They warn residents not to use this type of connection.

Kenneth Mortis, Fire Station Supervisor, Belize National Fire Service

“We received a fire call over on the other side of Faber’s Road whereby we responded and found a zinc type structure […] fully engulfed in flames, again, we extinguished the fire and we learnt that that particular building was owned and occupied by a mother and daughter. We learnt that the daughter wasn’t at home. The mother was at home. She stated that she wasn’t doing any cooking, so the investigation intensified and we had to try and determine what caused that particular fire. We learnt that this particular structure, unfortunately, was the recipient of unregistered nature of electricity. It wasn’t registered to B.E.L. Therefore, after closely looking at the remains and the remnants, we can safely conclude that this fire started as a result of an electrical overload which again is an unfortunate situation because we all know that once you are in the habit of trying to ease your financial expense by tapping into these long poles in order to provide your resident with direct current, the risk that you’re taking is very high, and this was just one of those unfortunate scenarios waiting to happen. This was a total loss for the mother and daughter duo. Again, fortunately nobody was injured in this blaze. And, you know, on behalf of the fire department we can only continue to discourage residents from tampering with these electrical posts for free means of electricity. The good old saying is “everyday di bucket go dah well, one day eh wah go track out”. You might be doing this for years and years and nothing happens. But over time you do have electrical break down and the results isn’t something that you want to look forward to.”