Fire leaves Belize City family homeless

An early afternoon fire in Belize City has left a number of people homeless.

Sherlyn Young had just left her house to go and buy at a nearby shop when she looked back and saw smoke and fire coming from inside the house.

Sherlyn Young, Fire Victim

“I gone buy and when I look the house under fire, that I rush hurry come from so, and I run. I see the smoke; the come out and I run and hurry to come tek out, to come and save something but I couldn’t save nothing.”

Q: “No?”

Sherlyn Young

“I gone to buy a soft drink to eat my dinner with.”

Q: “Your daughter was home?”

Sherlyn Young

“No, nobody was home.”

But as would later be the case, a baby was left inside the house, but fortunately the child was rescued by a good samaritan in the area. Clinton Garnett, Young’s common-law-husband, said he did not only loose the house, which was a gift from his grandfather, but all of the family’s possessions as well.

Clinton Garnett, Fire Victim

“Well, I couldn’t give you the value of what’s happening there, cause the whole thing burnt down. All the papers, everything burn.”

Q: “Was anything insured?”

Clinton Garnett

“No, we no insured.”

According to Fire Chief Henry Baizar, the blaze started in the kitchen and quickly spread throughout the old wooden house.

Henry Baizar, Fire Chief

“We received the call at 12:46 and immediately two of the vehicles responded. When we arrived here we found the house engulfed in flames. We quickly tried to contain the flames not allowing it to spread onto the neighboring houses and what not. Other than that, the only thing I can add is in this area we can only fight the fire with the hydrants. We have been trying to get more water from the hydrants. If you noticed we are still trying to fight the fire, we have to slow it down ever so often because not enough water we would have already out the fire.”

But while the family may have lost everything, Anthony “Boots” Martinez, U.D.P. Standard Bearer for Port Loyola, was quick to come to the rescue, promising to look after assistance for the fire victims.

Anthony “Boots” Martinez, Standard Bearer Port Loyola Division

“Well first and foremost, we must look at securing that the family should be in a safe place for the duration until certain time that we can come up with a solid plan between the business community and the community at Port Loyola.

Some residents of the area were saying that if they did not close the substation, the fire substation there at the Yarborough Green, disasters like this wouldn’t be occurring in the area.”

Q: “Have you all been looking into this as well?”

Anthony “Boots” Martinez

“Well I think it is a big concern and I think we are in the motion right now getting a piece of land in Faber’s Road for a fire station in Port Loyola area. I was in discussion this morning and this afternoon I will be going back to the Minister of Lands to try and finalize that.”