Another Electrical Fire, this time in Lake I
Around eleven a.m. today, a fire broke inside a wooden structure in the Lake Independence area of Belize City. Firefighters responded to the distress call and a short while after found a twelve-by-fifteen house engulfed in flames. The fire was soon after extinguished and an investigation revealed that it may have been an electrical fire. Fortunately, no one was injured in this blaze. News Five spoke this afternoon with Station Supervisor Kenneth Mortis of the National Fire Service.
Kenneth Mortis
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, National Fire Service
“The call came in of a bushfire in progress off Riverside Street, behind Lakers [Cool] Spot. Well we responded with one truck as per normal, based on the call, however when we got there we realised that it was a house on fire. We then had to send for a secondary truck and additional crewmembers. We commenced firefighting to extinguish this blaze thus minimizing this fire to the one structure that was already consumed. Once the fire was extinguished, we launched an investigation to determine the cause and origin whereby we discovered that the building was an abandoned building, however, it was trafficked by non-residential people in the area. What we also learnt is that this particular building was receiving an illegal electrical drop from the closest structure next to it. I brought in my electrician and they confirmed that the fire started as a result of an electrical flaw based on the fact that it had an illegal extension onto the house.”
Duane Moody
“So people were living in there?”
Kenneth Mortis
“It wasn’t registered to me and you, per say. It was a building that was established, [and] because it was abandoned, then we just had street figures trafficking the area; at least that is the information that we gathered from the scene. To this current standings, we cannot ascertain who the owner was as it seems whoever constructed this structure, never did pick up residence in it.”
The value of the structure is unknown.
