C.Z.M.A.I. reacts to fire at Goff’s Caye

A fire at Goff’s Caye has destroyed a large thatch-roofed structure used by visitors. Police are still trying to find out what started the blaze that totally destroyed the palapa belonging to the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute sometime on Thursday night. Valued at around thirty thousand dollars, the structure was used to provide shade for the hundreds of cruise ship and other tourists visiting the island on a daily basis. According to Coastal Zone’s acting director, Virginia Vasquez, at this time they cannot say whether the fire was an act of arson… but it has cost them dearly.

Virginia Vasquez, Acting Director, CZMAI
?Great significance to Coastal Zone management at this time. Immediately, we do need to look at an alternative for the structure because tomorrow we have tourists coming in from the cruise ships. Also, we need to identify sums of money of perhaps up to twenty-five thousand dollars to replace the structure, and we would need to design then a financial strategy and then an accompanying action plan which would take us to the final product of this constructed thatch structure. Also, we would be looking at improving our communication network because there was a gap there in the communication and we need to make sure that we have people in position that would relate anything that would happen on the island to us immediately.?

On July sixth, 2004, the Minister of Natural Resources and officials from C.Z.M.A.I. signed a management contract for the caye. The island, which sits atop the barrier reef, is situated about fifteen miles south-east of Belize City and is one of the most popular recreational sites for Belizeans and tourists.