Fire leaves nearly 100 San Pedranos homeless
The town of San Pedro is no stranger to misfortune, but most of the community’s disasters are of the natural variety, namely hurricanes. But the storm which struck Ambergris Caye in the wee hours of Saturday morning was made of fire, and the evidence indicated that the conflagration may have been manmade. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods reports.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The fire destroyed seven buildings and left close to one hundred persons homeless and is estimated to have caused three million dollars in damage. Most of the fire victims are not San Pedranos, but people from the mainland who came to the island to work and rented apartments in the Esmeralada area on the west side of the municipal airstrip. The fire started shortly after 1:00 a.m. at Felix and Ada Ayuso’s residence and quickly spread to neighbouring buildings.
Kelvin Zolozabal, Fire Victim
“When it started, the breeze begin to blow and hit the house upstairs and when the roof start to ketch, then from this house then the next house start to ketch right.”
Jacqueline Woods
“It happened quickly?”
Kelvin Zolozabal
“Quick, just like that.”
Kelvin Zolozabal, who lived in one of the apartment buildings that was destroyed says he had just gotten home and was sitting on the veranda when he noticed flames coming from inside the house next door. Zolozabal says there was just not enough time to save any of his possessions.
Kelvin Zolozabal
“Everything, clothes, everybody lose everything because the house are close to one another, so it just start to spread. And the breeze was blowing from the sea, so it start to hit one another house you know.”
Today we came upon the Oba family sifting through the debris and ashes desperately trying to find some remembrances of their life. Amelia Oba says she was sleeping when she was suddenly awakened by the strong smell of smoke.
Amelia Oba, Fire Victim (translated from Spanish)
“So that’s when I got up with my family. We could not save anything, no clothes, nothing. All I did was just grabbed my kids and ran out.”
Captain Sharks, a marine supply store, was the only business that was destroyed. The store, owned By James Ritchie, lost one point two million dollars in damage to the building and contents.
Ian Ritchie, James’ Father
“There’s nothing left. We lost the building and we lost the stock, everything that we’ve built up over the last five years. There was a considerable amount of money in the stock. Very thankfully, we had a little insurance, it really doesn’t cover the stock hardly, but at least it covers the building. My sympathy goes out tremendously to our neighbours, the people who had their homes here, who lost everything.”
Jacqueline Woods
“I notice cleanup has already started here, does this mean that you plan to start over at the same location?”
Ian Ritchie
“We plan to start over at this location as soon as we can get a building up. That we hope to be in a matter of weeks rather than longer, and we’re going to start in business at another location on, I think it’s Barrier Reef Drive, down by the southern supermarket this week. It’s a temporary one that we’re gonna get in straight away so that we can keep our customers supplied with their needs.”
When we arrived at the scene, many people who witnessed the inferno said the buildings could have been saved, but that one of the pumps used by the Fire Service refused to work.
Kelvin Zolozabal
“We were waiting for water to out the first house and no water. And then the owner of the house was bailing that her house was going to ketch fire. Because this was the roof up here and the breeze was blowing and then it ketch the roof and that’s when this first house start to ketch. No water, then the people start to come out and like two hundred guys, San Pedranos, get together and we get buckets, I don’t know from where buckets come, but buckets just come. We had to break that fence over there from Tropic Air and break two other pipe lines and get water and break the water line from over that side to get water to try out the fire.”
Andrew Nunez, O.C., San Pedro Fire Department
“When we arrived on the scene, two house were already engulfed in flames. At the same time, when we proceeded to the lagoon located on Tarpon Street, the pump was malfunctioned.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Did the pumps started to give problems when you all arrived at the scene or was this pump simply not working for some time?”
Andrew Nunez
“Well, I cannot say at this time due to the fact that we are still going with an ongoing investigation pertaining to the pump section, so I cannot say at this moment.”
Jacqueline Woods
“But I would imagine that you guys would check your equipment on a daily basis, so when was the last time the pump was checked?”
Andrew Nunez
“We check it on a regular and daily basis, during handing over, taking over, we make sure that all the equipment and everything is serviceable, that’s part of our maintenance job.”
Jacqueline Woods
“So when was this pump last checked and was it working?”
Andrew Nunez
“As I said before, it is checked everyday on a regular basis, we check it during handing over and taking over.”
Jacqueline Woods
“So, it was checked on the morning of the fire?”
Andrew Nunez
“You can say that.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Now this fire department has two trucks and I understand it wasn’t only one truck that had gone out to the scene, but a second bowser/tender. So when this first truck pump failed, why is it that you didn’t use the second truck?”
Andrew Nunez
“We did try to use it, but at the same time, it’s an old truck and we have been experiencing difficulties with it, so that’s not something you can rely on.”
As the National Fire service does its own internal investigation to find out what caused the delay, the fire itself is being investigated.
Jacqueline Woods
“The police and fire officials are investigating to find out what started the blaze. But preliminary reports suggest that the fire, which started from the Ayuso’s residence was deliberately set.”
San Pedro police say Ada Ayuso told them that following a fight with her husband, Felix Ayuso, he tore her clothes off and that’s when she locked her herself inside the bathroom. Police say Ayuso told them that while she was inside the room she heard something that sounded like the rustling of papers and then a door slammed. When Ayuso walked out of the room, that’s when she saw a mattress was on fire inside the bedroom. On Saturday, police detained Felix Ayuso, but this morning he was released pending further investigation.
As for the fire victims, they have been receiving some assistance from the community, area representative for Patty Arceo, the town board and the Human Development Department.
Patty Arceo, Area Representative
“Get people’s names and find out exactly how many of them were affected. We found out it was close to ninety-seven people that were directly affected. We then went over to the radio station and started to plea with community of San Pedro to please bring some food and some clothes so that we can be assisting these people, of which the response was immediately.
Well as you know, the investigation is still being carried on and some of these people also had insurance, so the insurance companies also have to be coming to do some assessment. A lot of the people who were affected were mostly tenants, so we’re accommodating them in other buildings where they can continue renting. And our office of Belize Rural South, will be assisting them for about two months with the payments of the rentals.”
The Radio-thon that was hosted by reef radio managed to raise a total of eighty-four thousand dollars. Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
Donations for the fire relief fund can be sent to the San Pedro Town Board.
