Fire leaves single mothers and children homeless

Two Belize City families headed by single mothers lost everything in a midday fire today. The six persons have, for the time being, moved in with relatives and friends after the blaze gutted their home located on Neal Penn Road. The fire started in a bedroom of one of the wooden apartments sometime around twelve-thirty and shortly after firefighters responded and doused the fire, but it was too late to save the belongings of the Castillo and Roches families. Duane Moody has this report.

Duane Moody, Reporting
Twenty-five year old single mother, Meredith Castillo and her two children—three and four years old—were outside their apartment when the blaze started. They were unscathed but the fire gutted their apartment and spread to another occupied by Lirsa Roches and her two children.

Meredith Castillo, Home Destroyed by Fire
“Me and my two pickney live eena half and wah other gial weh name Lirsa live eena di next half with her two pickney. We just deh pan di step, we di heng out because she just gone dah school fi fi she two pickney and den I my daughter eat dah school so I go ker thing fi ih eat and when I come back we di sit down. Nothing neva plug in, I just open di door and we sit down pan di step. Den wah gyal come through di gate and she seh how smoke di come out ah fi unnu house. I seh no smoke noh out deh and I seh noh joke bout dehn thing. When I look dah back di whole place just start eena fire and I try fi go inside go try save anything and den di heat come eena my face and I just hurry pick up my son and come out cause I couldn’t si nothing.”

Jose Sanchez
“Were you able to save anything from the house?”

Meredith Castillo
“No, nothing.”

Jose Sanchez
“Anybody got hurt?”

Meredith Castillo
“No, cause we come out as the fire start come to di front and ih start to bruk in, we come out through the gate and we stand up outside pan di street.”

Lirsa Roches, Home Destroyed by Fire
“At the time I wasn’t here, I went to get my baby from school and my friend rode up to me and she told me Lirsa your house is on fire and everything burn down. I thought she was playing at the time but when I saw she got serious and the tears in her eyes, I said you sure? Ih seh yes, ih seh everything done burn down and I couldn’t save anything for you.”

Fire Victim
“I mi di wash and all my clothes get burn. When I hear fire I run and get my pickney. I couldn’t save nothing and I pregnant. I have my pickney eena my hand and I pregnant and my bwai gone lef me and I no have no body fi help mi. All my clothes, all my baby clothes, all my panty, everything burn for me and I need help.”

Both Castillo and Roches say they believe that the cause of the fire was due to faulty wiring.

Meredith Castillo
“We mi done tell this lady about the wiring ah di house. We tell she mek we tek fi we money and give somebody else fi fix it and noh give she no rent right. And she seh no, she wah fix it. So we continue pay rent and then I noh know if she noh fix it good because di first time di wire touch together and spoil my TV and I tell she and ih seh wah pay half fi fix di TV. I seh okay, when you wah fix di wire. Ih seh she wah fix it. I noh know if she done fix it and maybe dah that. Ih only could be that.”

Jose Sanchez
“Did you ever see any short out with the wire?”

Meredith Castillo
“Yes and we tell she bout it and she lone seh she wah fix it and she noh fix it.”

Jose Sanchez
“Your neighbor says who lives in the other half of the house says that there were problems with the wire. Did you experience electrical problems?”

Lirsa Roches
“Well the wire use to get hot. She lived here approximately like two years. I have just moved here about two months but I would go to her and tell her I di charge my phone and di light dehn get hot, hot. Weh dah di problem, dehn mi change di lee switch and seh dah di lee switch dehn mi di go bad and she seh no di house need fi wire ova, I di experience dis long time. But I noh really bring it or nothing. Every time she would ah tell me di same thing but I noh really bring it cause I just move yah.”

Firefighters say that the fire was due to a faulty electrical cord that was attached to a fan in Castillo’s apartment.

Kenneth Mortis, Training Officer, Nat’l Fire Service
“On arrival we observed a wooden bungalow structure fully engulfed in flames. The department got into operation to extinguish the fire before further damage could have been done. What really happen here is that Miss Castillo had an extension cord in her bedroom running from an outlet to supply electricity to a fan. The extension cord ran under the bed and the cord had faulty wiring which led from the outlet and before Miss Castillo realized what happened, the fire started and destroyed her home.”

Duane Moody
“The fire completely destroyed everything inside?”

Kenneth Mortis
“Everything inside that is hers was destroyed because the building served as two apartment structures. So her apartment was destroyed along with her items.”

It is not known if the apartment was insured and when we approached the owners, they refused to comment. Duane Moody, reporting for News Five.

The National Fire Service advices residents to take caution when using extension cords during the upcoming Christmas Season.