Toddler perishes; seven families left homeless by fire

A three-year old boy was trapped and perished in a fire at an apartment building over the weekend in Belize City. Seven families were left homeless and the Fire and Police Departments are now looking for answers in the heap of rubble that was left behind by the blaze. Marion Ali reports.

Marion Ali, Reporting
While fire officials are not yet sure what caused the Saturday afternoon blaze at this two-storey wooden and cement house at six Dean Street in Belize City, they feel the death of three year old Omar Aguilar could be a matter of neglect.

Kenneth Mortis, Training Officer, Nat’l Fire Service
“We definitely can rule out electrical, we can almost rule out cooking because no cooking was being done at the time. So I’m not trying to lean towards anything but I’ll just leave it at that and see what it is. I don’t want to say anything else. What we did discover was that the room these children should have been in was locked from the outside. So that by itself is a major neglect on behalf of whoever was left in the care of these two children. It’s a nine year old and a two year old, the two year old being mentally challenged as he is.”

Little Omar and his nine year old brother, Glenford McLean, were left at their room at the apartment complex by their mother, thirty year old Pauline McLean, who went to work at Belize Maintenance Limited. We met McLean at the morgue, but she declined comment and said she could not provide a picture of the child because all were destroyed in the blaze. Her neighbour, Cherry Usher, whose small wooden house is in the same yard, did tell us that she got a scare.

Cherry Usher, Neighbour
“I di tremble, I di tremble and afta dat dehn ker me outside. Dehn ker me and I mi deh right deh so and dehn seh lets go before you get burn up in yah. And dehn ker me and I sit down cross di street dah di shop. When dehn ker mi deh, di fire start and yoh si di smoke.”

McLean’s other neighbour, Rudolph Conorquie, tried to save little Omar’s life, but it was too late.

Rudolph Conorquie, Neighbour
“I was in my house eating when the neighbours came and shouted fire, fire. When I run out I saw fire coming through one of the windows and I was notified that baby was in there. So I tried to—I ran and I stomped the door but when I stomped the door the fire was already at the door so I couldn’t go in. I had to step backwards because I would have gotten burned too because all the fire was at the door already. So that was when some other neighbours came and we started to get buckets of water and throw it at the building and baby was still in the room. I know him very well, in fact his older brother that was supposed to be taking care if him was at my house watching TV. So he didn’t know, he said his brother was sleeping in the room. So they usually play around here or they are in a parking lot playing so I know him very well.”

Kenneth Mortis
“Our findings of the child was after the fire was extinguished. We did not receive sufficient information stating that there was somebody trapped in the building.”

Marion Ali
“Nobody told you that?”

Kenneth Mortis
“We can only go by what we receive so when we arrive on the scene our primary thing is locate, confine, extinguish the fire. The second thing is the room from where the fire supposedly had started, was already consumed by the flames. Hence, if we had even found that child, that child would have already been dead. Initial investigation also reveals that the mother of child, who was not at home, had left this particular three year old in the presence of his nine year old brother.”

Marion Ali
“Other adults were around though.”

Kenneth Mortis
“Other adults around the building, but not directly afflicted with the two children.”

Marion Ali
“And nobody noticed this child was missing or not outside with them?”

Kenneth Mortis
“It’s hard to tell because everybody is like kinda pointing fingers.”

And while investigations will determine who was at fault, a mother has lost her child and Conorquie says the death of his young neighbour has left him saddened.

Rudolph Conorquie
“I tried to get him out and knowing that I couldn’t get him out and standing there knowing this child would burn to death, it hurts a lot. And this was a baby and so thinking about it, thinking about other children and so on, it hurts a lot. And it affects all of us; the family, the neighbourhood, everybody was sad because I could lose my house, but losing a child is another story.”

The house was owned by Raymond Lashley. The occupants lost all their belongings and fire officials are still trying to find out whether anything was insured. Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.