George Street Fire Leaves Elderly Man Homeless
A fire on Saturday night in Belize City has left an elderly man homeless. The property on George Street contained three wooden structures, two of which were gutted by the inferno. “Pappy Felix” lived in the building at the rear and it is suspected that a mental health patient, who occupied the abandoned property at the front, may have caused the fire. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
An elderly man is homeless after the place he’s called home all his life went up in flames on Saturday night. The fire could be seen from a distance as two wooden structures inside the property on George Street were gutted by the inferno; electrical wires hanging dangerously close to the blaze sparked multiple times making it difficult for firefighting. By the time the flames were extinguished, everything was lost.
Henry Humes
Henry Humes, Nephew of Fire Victim
“My uncle is living right there on the street right now. He’s living in the yard on a piece of board, sleeping right now. Di try get something today to try and do something.”
According to stevedore Henry Humes, his uncle was inside his house when the fire started in the abandoned structure at the front of the yard. He alleges that a homeless man who slept in the other wooden structure started the fire.
Henry Humes
“Well the fire start inside; dehn bwai di smoke a little rock ina di house…rock star. From then the fire start and then the man get burn right out. That dah weh I know cause I dah stevedore; I work shift. When I come from work, I see the place burn down and dah soh I get the information dah wah crazy man burn it down…who is there right now.”
Duane Moody
“Somebody was occupying the house? Somebody lived inside the house?”
Henry Humes
“He live without nobody tell him; just live right there like that. A single man, a poor man; crazy man like we say. Just take the house like an abandoned house and live in dehn and smoke and dah he burn it down. We can’t find him right now.”
In the aftermath of the fire, Humes says that they are trying to recover, but would need some assistance. Whatever material they can salvage from the fire will be used to rebuild.
Henry Humes
“We di struggle right now. We try to use the same pieces of material to try and put something fi make ih deh outta di draft for right now. That’s what we are trying to do today, so we di wait and see if somebody else wah come and give we a lee help out. I just come see right now to try get some material but I say today we want get some board to build up wah lee room and wah toilet fi ahn. Dah appreciation we need, but we noh get no assistance so we have to do it weself.”
If anyone would like to assist, they can contact Humes at 668-2340. Duane Moody for News Five.
