Fire leaves two families homeless

A fire in Belize City on Sunday has left two families without shelter. Today, News 5’s Jacqueline Woods looked for answers in the rubble.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

Fire officials say they still cannot determine what started the blaze, but are waiting to interview some people who were on hand at the time of the incident. The two storey wooden house, which was occupied by the Young and Clarke families, was totally destroyed and most of their belongings could not be saved. Fire Chief Henry Baizar says when they pulled up at number 3835 Kraal Road, the building was already engulfed in flames.

Henry Baizar, Fire Chief

“A board on the side of a nearby house was started to catch fire likewise, but the guys hurriedly extinguished that and tried to contain the fire to the one building. The entire building was destroyed, both upstairs and downstairs.”

According to Baizar they do not suspect arson and believe that something may have been left carelessly lit in one of the upstairs back bedrooms.

Henry Baizar

“It’s a neighbour smell smoke and went to investigate and actually found that one of the rooms was on fire. He then alerted the lady, because some other people were at the house at the time, they were on the front veranda listening to music on the radio. They hurriedly went inside and try to…but they couldn’t do anything, virtually what they got out of the house was the radio that they were playing and a television; everything else was destroyed.”

Baizar says because the second floor collapsed and the evidence may have been destroyed, it will be hard to determine what caused the blaze. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting for News 5.

As a result of the fire, seven persons have been left homeless. The house, which was owned by seventy-one year old Gwendolyn Young, was not insured.