Cattouse family homeless after fire guts house
It has been a bumpy ride for the family of Belize City resident Bernadine Cattouse. One year ago, she lost her seventeen year old daughter, Michelle, to rivalry between gangs when she was shot on Belcan Bridge after leaving the Putt-Putt Bar. Three months later, another daughter, ten year old Carolyn was injured when the family’s three bedroom wooden house on Vernon Street fell on her as it was being placed on posts. Carolyn is still recovering from the injuries she sustained. But if they say that lightning never strikes the same place twice, tragedy surely struck a third time when a blaze gutted the Cattouse house.
Duane Moody, Reporting
It’s been two days since Bernadine Cattouse and her four children have been staying in an apartment on Casarina Street. That’s because the structure they once called home was destroyed by fire around four-thirty a.m. on Saturday morning. According to Cattouse, the family left home around eight on Friday night and hours later, the building was ablaze.
Bernadine Cattouse, Fire Victim
“My son live in the front and he come and he told me the house burn and I couldn’t believe it because I leave my house in good condition so I noh know why my house burn.”
Duane Moody
“Did your home have electricity?”
Bernadine Cattouse
Bernadine Cattouse
“Yes, but at the time it didn’t have on lights. When I left, my kids went with me—my four children that live in the house. No one was in the house and I took precaution that I close my house very well. So when I heard this news I felt… I don’t know what to say but I felt very traumatized because I leave my home safe and then I came back and my house is gone.”
The blaze is believed to have been deliberate and fire officials are treating the case as arson.
Kenneth Mortis, Training Officer, Nat’l Fire Service
“We are leaning to arson. The investigation is ongoing. We have not found anything conclusive to directly relate it to an arson, but like all fires, we try to treat all fires as professionally as we can and this is just another one that we will have to do more digging and toiling to come up with a concrete cause.”
Duane Moody
“But this home had a drop of light I believe from a neighbor, was that the cause of this fire?”
Kenneth Mortis
“No, that was not the cause. Yes it had a drop but electrical didn’t play a role in this fire. The location where this fire started from was from the bathroom area and from there it spread its way out.”
Bernadine Cattouse
“I can’t say who did it. I really can’t.”
Duane Moody
“But do you believe that someone literally put your house on fire?”
Bernadine Cattouse
“Yes I do.”
Duane Moody
“Do you have any enemies or anybody that has a grudge against you that would want to do something like this? Do you know of anything like that?”
Bernadine Cattouse
“No, I don’t have any enemies because I am not a person that look for trouble or do anything to anyone. So I can’t say I have enemies that would want to do me something like this.”
The family is now asking for assistance to replace what was lost in the blaze.
Bernadine Cattouse
“I want the government to please give me assistance. I really need assistance with anything they can do for me. My home, whatever I have in it. I work but the money I make can’t do that for me. Just please give me help, and even the community or the business places. I can please get help.”
According to Cattouse, the house was valued at twenty-seven thousand. Duane Moody, reporting for News Five.
If you would like to assist the family, contact Bernadine Cattouse at 630-8084.
