Family of 4 Homeless after Fire in Flowers Bank

A fire at a residence on the Flowers Bank Road on December seventh has left a family of four without a roof over their heads. Tanisha Myvett, her common-law husband and two children, lived in a two-bedroom wooden structure on the property, but while they were away, a fire broke inside the house. All that was left behind were charred rubble and zinc. But Myvett believes that the fire was deliberately set. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

It did not make it to any official report – not at the National Fire Service or the Belize Police Department – but on Monday night, a fire erupted inside a wooden two-bedroom house on the Flowers Bank Road in Belize River Valley. It belonged to Tanisha Myvett and her family who had relocated to Belize City due to a medical emergency and the flooding. Since the floodwater had receded, they were planning to return home, but that’s when she got the dreaded message from a relative.

Tanisha Myvett, Fire Victim

Tanisha Myvett

“I received a message via messenger from my cousin informing me that the house I lived in in Flowers Bank got burnt down. When I sent my spouse to check the house, only thing that was left was ashes and sink. All the household items, everything burnt. I had to take an emergency surgery and due to the cut, I couldn’t up and down the road, it was flooded so we had to stay here in Belize City. And we never expected something like that to happen because we had close neighbours and we thought that they were our friends and we expected that neighbours should be looking out for each other.”

Duane Moody

“So you guys were planning to go back up this week when this happened?”

Tanisha Myvett

“Yes sir, we were planning to go back up this week. As you know, Christmas is coming and we were going to go home and try and get something arranged and whatnot, but unfortunately we can’t.”

While the house had all utilities installed, the family does not believe that the fire was electrical. Myvett alleges that it was deliberately set. Here’s why:

Tanisha Myvett

“The house was fully furnished and my spouse said he was looking to see remnants of some of the household items and he couldn’t find it. So I believe someone went into the house, took what they wanted and put it on fire.”

The National Fire Service was not called out to the scene and an investigation has not been done to determine the official cause of the fire. Myvett says that they had been living there for over a year and is asking for assistance to recover.

Tanisha Myvett

“I don’t know right now how I am standing up, but with prayers and everything, you gotta put it all up to that man up there. You gotta move on. It’s already gone so it is really sad, but we gotta cope with it and try and see how we could survive. It is hard to begin all over, to start everything all over from scratch again. We had everything in our house, clothes, papers – everything went. And it is very hard to start over.”

The value of the house and its contents is estimated at thirty thousand dollars. Duane Moody for News Five.

Anyone wanting to assist the family can reach Tanisha Myvett at 600-0195 or 605-6265