House collapses on Pickstock Street

Every once in a while a wooden house drops in Belize City. And it happened again today. Although officials are still investigating why a home on Pickstock Street collapsed on one side, everyone is relieved that the family inside at the time was not hurt. Janelle Chanona was at the scene.

Like families all over the city Denise Myers and her four children sat down for their noon meal today. All of a sudden the residents of 33 Pickstock Street felt like they were falling and then felt their house hit the ground. Eyewitnesses said that they heard a loud noise and the screams of the children as they rushed to pull them out of the house.

Norris Fisher, Acting Fire Chief

“At about 12:41, we received a call at the Fire Station that a house had collapsed on Pickstock Street so we proceeded out here and found house number 33 flat on the ground. It was a house about four feet off the ground and it fell on the western side. And Ms. Denise Myers had said that she and her four children were having a meal at the time when the house fell. She just felt the house fall. No one in the house was injured but the house received slight damage to the portion on the northern side, which has the verandah, and only the part that rests against the building over this side received minor damage. Nobody was injured.”

Q: “Is there a risk of a fire being started?”

Norris Fisher

“Well, I don’t think so at the moment because all the electrical seems to be in good shape. The gas tank was turned off immediately when the firemen arrived at the scene.”

Myers has lived in the house just over a year but says she has asked the Ministry of Housing for financial aid for repairs on numerous occasions. Myers said that in fact she had an appointment with the Minister of Housing, Honorable Dickie Bradley, this afternoon. It is uncertain when Myers and her children will be able to return home. Janelle Chanona for News Five.

Minister of Housing Dickie Bradley says that while there is no record of Myers’ claim, the Ministry of Housing will try to help her. According to Bradley, an inspector was sent out this afternoon to estimate the damage but because it is not her home and she is currently unemployed, it will be difficult to get her the help she needs.