Fire threatens to destroy Li Chee restaurant

If you live in Belize City, you will know of the famous Li Chee Restaurant located on Freetown Road. At around eleven this morning, a malfunction in one of the ventilation systems at the restaurant ignited starting a blaze in the kitchen area. The employees fled the restaurant and fire fighters were quick to contain the flames which damaged the ceiling of the lower flat of the two storey building. Station Supervisor for the Fire Department, Kenneth Mortis, says that the situation could have been worse.

Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, Fire Department
“On arrival we saw heavy smoke coming from the upper portion of the two storey building. Initially we made entrance into the upper portion of the building to make an attempt to find this fire and extinguish it. We did not locate the fire in the upper portion so we had to make forcible entry into the downstairs. The fire was located in the kitchen area of the restaurant. The fire was determined to have started from the said kitchen as a result of what is considered to be an electrical fault. Now, what happen was that the electrical wirings to the vent was faulty and as a result of that the workers around the kitchen area at the time explained to us that they saw and observed sparking coming from that said wire. An initial attempt was made by them to extinguish this fire but before extinguishing the blaze it eventually worked its way up towards the ceiling whereby a lot of smoke was distributed throughout the building and the workers had to evacuate the building before they could have actually assisted in extinguishing this fire.”

Duane Moody
“What all was destroyed sir?”

Kenneth Mortis
“From the kitchen area, we had a portion of the roof or the ceiling area along with the vent fans and minor, minor damage such as smoke damage to the walls and the shelves. The lower portion also sustained water damage, but apart from that, the upper portion received no damage whatsoever in regards of fire and no one was injured in this afternoon’s fiasco.”

The serving area of the restaurant received no damages and if you are a patron, Li Chee will re-open in the near future.