Malicious Act in Orange Walk Town Fire

Kenneth Mortis

The National Fire Service is also reporting a malicious act that occurred overnight in Orange Walk Town. Fire fighters were called out to a structural fire on San Andres and Progress Streets in that northern municipality sometime after eleven p.m.  Flames were discovered on the step and under the back door of a wooden and zinc structure. While no major damage was done to the building and the fire was quickly extinguished, an investigation shows that it was an incendiary fire. Station Supervisor Kenneth Mortis says that the suspected accelerant was retrieved from the scene. 

Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, National Fire Service

“Last night Orange Walk Fire Department responded to a fire in the vicinity of the Muffles College. That call was made by a security personnel, Mister Elias Melendez. Fortunately, the fire-fighting team arrived on the scene before this fire could have turned out to something more tragic. The building being an L shaped bungalow wooden type structure, we observed that the fire was at the rear of the building on a step. We also noticed that the perpetrator or perpetrators used some form of accelerant to enhance this fire. The bottle with the suspect accelerant was handed over to Scenes of Crime officers on the scene and they took that for further testing and analysis. On the flipside, we made attempt to find the owner of the building, but that was unsuccessful for us at this time. We only can report that we were told that it’s a lady that lived there; we don’t know if she lived by herself or she has family. When we tried to contact her via the number that we were given, that number went unanswered.”

Duane Moody

“So nobody was staying there at the time?”

Kenneth Mortis

“Either nobody was staying there or nobody was at home. But as far as we understand, the house had furnishings in it; it’s just that the owner of the house as unreachable.”

Duane Moody

“So attempted arson?”

Kenneth Mortis

“Malicious act.”