House collapses, family safe

It is a story that arrives with a bang about twice every year–miraculously with few injuries. Jacqueline Woods reports on the latest old Belize City house to call it quits.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

The two storey wooden building provided shelter for the Vernon family for the past nineteen years, but around 9:30 on Sunday night the house collapsed beneath them sending Dorothy Vernon and her two teenaged children crashing to the ground. Vernon says the family did not have time to react, but just held onto each other and prayed that everyone would be safe.

Dorothy Vernon

“Just a little creak, about say five seconds and then suddenly it just…I hail my daughter and told her to hail her brother because her brother was already sleeping. And by the time they came out, all we did was hugged up each other and lay down on the ground and the house just drop just like that.”

Besides a slight injury to Vernon’s foot, no one was seriously hurt. The incident was not the result of high winds or a collision with a vehicle. The family, which has been renting the house for more than a decade, believes the old structure’s posts had weakened overtime and it finally gave way. Presently, the Vernon’s are staying with a neighbour until they can get the help to relocate.

Dorothy Vernon

“I need someone to assist me. I want a house, and one that I can still be around the Queen Square area or something like that. But not a part time house, a house that I can live as long as how I lived here, for nineteen years.”

Jacqueline Woods for News 5.

The residents tell News 5 they had intended to make repairs by the end of the month.