Family loses everything in early morning blaze
A woman who lives on Louise Bevans Street woke up to find her verandah on fire. Fifty-five year old Juanita Gonzalez, woke up at two forty seven a.m. when she smelled smoke and when she checked, her verandah was ablaze. The woman managed to out the fire and save her home. And while she is able to sleep in that house tonight, another Belize City family is not so lucky. On Sunday evening a house at number ninety six Neal’s Pen Road which happened to be one of the first set of houses to be built on the street, was completely destroyed by fire. The house was occupied by twenty seven year old Stacy Thurton and her three children. Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor of the Belize City Fire Department, says they are still investigating this incident.
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, Fire Department
“Yesterday at approximately fifteen thirty-two hundred hours, the fire station received a call of a fire on Neal Pen Road. We arrived at the area and found a two story house with the upper portion engulfed in flames. We got into operation to extinguish this fire after which we did investigation into the origin and cause of the fire. We observed that the house was owned by Miss Carolee and was occupied by Miss Stacy along with her children and her mother. The house was destroyed along with its contents and it was not insured. The total value of the contents was twenty thousand dollars. So at the moment our team is out there investigating the cause as to how this fire got started.”
Jose Sanchez
“The woman who occupied the house, did she give you any clues as to what may have caused the fire?”
Kenneth Mortis
“When we spoke with her she mentioned that the house was having low voltage. Now we’re not directing that as to the cause of the fire but its something that we definitely need to look into, especially seeing that this report was forwarded to B.E.L. on Saturday which would have been the day before the fire started.”
Jose Sanchez
“Was anyone in the house at the time the fire occurred?”
Kenneth Mortis
“She had left for work, so we do believe that her mother and the children were at home when the fire started.”
Jose Sanchez
“But no one was hurt.”
Kenneth Mortis
“No one was hurt during this fire, luckily.”
And while no one was hurt, there is silver lining in the story. This afternoon at city hall, Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya made a substantial contribution to the fire victims. She replaced many of the items that Thurton lost in the fire. The mother of three received appliances, mattresses and household items which should help her to start her new live over.
