Special Envoy for Families & Children on Fatal Fire

On Wednesday, we reported the devastating story of four-year-old K’Lee Flores who perished inside a burning house on Sarstoon Street in Belize City. The special needs child was sleeping inside a bedroom in the upper flat of the home when a fire broke inside the house. Attempts were made by a thirteen-year-old to rescue the baby and then her uncle subsequently attempted to get to her, but the fire spread quickly to consume the structure, trapping the child in the bedroom. It’s a traumatic incident and loss of life that has shocked the country. While there have been outcry as to who’s to be blamed, Special Envoy for Families and Children, Rossana Briceño told the media today that interventions to prevent reoccurring incidents like these as well as counselling for those impacted will be the focus of her office.

Rossana Briceño

Rossana Briceño, Special Envoy for the Development of Families & Children

“It’s a very sad, sad day in Belize when our children die, especially children with special needs. I am not here to blame anybody, I am not here to point fingers at anybody, but I think our children with special needs do need that special attention and if there was some neglect on somebody’s part, we won’t know, but we definitely need to prioritize our children. That little girl was just four years old. For just a family to lose a child is something that is very devastating and for Belize, any time we lose a child, it is devastating. So I can only say I want to express my sincere condolences to the family and to the Belizean community because we are all suffering along with the family, suffering knowing that a young child has passed – in a fire, to make it worst. You just think about it and you can’t imagine the pain. So we are just hoping that this does not happen again. Many times we reach out to these families, and we do it quietly because it is not a sensation that we want to bring across to the media. But yes, we do that. And I definitely, my office will reach out to the family and we can offer, because it is up to them to accept. And if they do, we do have people that we work with that are good working with families, with children. So once we reach out to them which is going to happen ASAP, then we will put something in place for them.”