Fire Guts Plues Street House; 12 Persons Left Homeless

Christmas is less than a month away, but for two families in Belize City, there is not much to celebrate this season. The Williams and Neal families were displaced today by a raging fire that totally gutted their house at the corner of Rocky Road and Plues Street.  The fire started on the lower flat of the building, spreading quickly to consume the entire structure which was home to a dozen residents. Luckily no one was injured, but the families are left to pick up the pieces. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

Twelve persons, five from the Neal family on the lower flat and seven from the Williams family on the second floor of a two storey wooden and concrete structure, are tonight without a roof over their heads after the place they called home went up in flames. Around eight-thirty this morning, a fire started in a congested area of south side Belize City.

Benisford Matura

Benisford Matura, Acting Fire Chief

“We got into operation and extinguish the fire. The operational tactic was to relay water from the canal at the end of George Street; we had a unit parked nearest to the fire scene where it is not in danger but can operate from the area. The other unit went to the canal and draft water and feed it to the other unit so you have that constant supply of water and pressure.  The owner of the building is Mister Floyd Robinson. It was an apartment structure where they had several tenants upstairs and downstairs. The first floor had Ingrid Williams, Jahir Rivero, Keyani Sterling and Adayjah Parram. On the lower flat or the ground floor was Denise Tun, Brian Neal, Briana Neal and Shamira Neal.”

Shamira Neal, her parents and sibling have been living here at the corner of Rocky Road and Plues Street for over three years. She got the distress call while at work and the entire family is left with only the clothes on their backs.

Voice of: Shamira Neal, Fire Victim

“I was at work and I got a call from the person that lives upstairs daughter-in-law saying that if I know that my house was on fire. And I thought it was a joke so I said, “What?” And I hanged up. She called back again and she said my sister wanted to talk to me cause they were trying to reach my mom. That’s when reality hit me that okay, this is not a joke. And I burst into tears and I told my work that I had to leave. And I came here to see that I lost everything; literally everything: documents, clothes…this is literally my only suit of clothes. My entire family lost everything. Both families lost everything today. We had some new stuff that we recently got; our sofa, I just got a brand new bed, didn’t even set it up yet. My sister-in-law is pregnant and about to have baby any day now; all her stuff is lost down there. It’s just everything, we lost everything.”

By the time Shamira got there, the upper flat was still blazing as fire-fighters were in the process of extinguishing the blaze.  It is even more tragic because for Shamira and her family, they had recently packed up all their household items since they were about to relocate to a new house, just in time for the Christmas. Unfortunately those plans have gone up in smoke.

Voice of: Shamira Neal

“We have everything packed up because we were just waiting for a contract for a new place to sign to move. When my dad kicked open the back door, he says he saw flames from the ceiling. It is just devastating that we lost everything like this just before the Christmas.”

Acting Fire Chief, Benisford Matura says that the investigation has since revealed that the fire was as a result of the improper usage of a surge protector in the lower flat.

Benisford Matura

“People were around and eyewitness saw where the fire started from; it originated from the ground floor. Our investigators zeroed in on that area and we discovered that this fire was due to a faulty electrical system in the sense that they had a surge protector connected to an extension cord and the surge protector has like six holes. Every outlet on that hole was occupied and they had all their major appliances connected to that. So basically they overheated the surge protector which caused this fire.”

At the time of the fire, two persons were inside the upper flat. Luckily they got out before the building was gutted. Despite going through this difficult time, the families are grateful that no one was injured in the inferno.

Voice of: Shamira Neal

“If anyone would like to help, we would greatly appreciate that. We literally lost everything. I can be reached at 626-6777 or my mom can be reached at 624-0197.”

Duane Moody for News Five.