Fire puts food vendor out of business
The fire this morning on the outskirts of Belize City wasn’t a big blaze, but it was enough to put one budding entrepreneur at least temporarily out of business. Jacqueline Woods has more.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
It is still not known if this pot of water left to boil on the stove is responsible for an early morning blaze that completely destroyed the Ammon Food and Drink establishment on the Northern Highway. According to the business owner, Elida Segura, she was preparing today’s food and had just left the place to go inside her house when she noticed smoke coming from inside the small wooden building. Segura opened the door and that’s when she saw the blaze rising from the stove.
Elida Segura, Fire Victim
“I was trying to go in and go and try and out it, because to my belief, I could have out it, because the blaze you know… but a boy from the flour mill passed and hollered, “Miss, fire” and I swing around and I went to hail my husband and he came out and cut off the gas tank.”
Mister Segura’s action may have very well saved the family’s house from burning to the ground, but there was nothing the couple could have done to save the business located in the front yard. Segura says she is happy that no one was injured, but she is equally sad to have watched two years of hard work go up in smoke.
Elida Segura
“I never had no bank account nor nothing to start up the business, I just start up like that and we start slowly. My husband work at Pine lumber and we get the lumber at a reasonable price and my husband himself built it. But then to do a little business, you have to have money, so we struggle until we get to this. And I noh know if it is something that I like and I noh know if ever I will get back to this again.”
Segura says because it happened so quickly she was unable to save anything. She estimates that the fire has cost her close to six thousand dollars. The food stall was the first such establishment to be opened in the neighbourhood and it quickly became a popular spot for employees in the area. Today, Segura is looking to start all over again by operating from inside her house. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
Segura says she would like to thank the National Fire Service for their quick response.
