CFZ fire burns $300,000 in goods

A fire in the Commercial Free Zone early Monday morning has left Corozal business owners short of some three hundred thousand dollars of merchandize. Fire officials tell News 5 that at twelve twenty three am Corozal firefighters were informed that smoke was coming from a two storey cement building in the zone. The building, still under construction, served as a warehouse and the fire is believed to have started in an area rented as a storeroom by Ricarda and George Castro. According to Fire Chief Henry Baizar, two firetrucks were dispatched from Corozal and men and equipment were sent from Belize City to extinguish the blaze. Authorities from the CFZ say firefighters from the Mexican border state also participated the operation. Fighting the flames from inside the building was fraught with danger as the intense heat caused the second floor to collapse. By six that morning, the national fire service had the conflagration under control but it was not until four Monday afternoon, some eighteen hours after it started, that all the flames were extinguished. Fire officials were still on the scene today investigating the cause of the blaze. News 5 understands that the contents of the Castros’s storeroom were insured for three hundred thousand dollars. The building, named Bhojwani Plaza, is owned by Hans Bhojwani and was also insured.