Did arsonist burn two buildings and leave a family homeless?

One family is homeless following a fire that damaged two other wooden structures clustered in a yard on Petticoat Alley just before three o’clock this morning.   By the time it was over, only one of the three buildings was still standing.  While fire fighters managed to withstand the windy night and contain the blaze, the heat caused damages to neighbouring houses in the alley.  But because it started at an unoccupied house, authorities are looking at whether it was intentionally set. Within hours one suspect was detained.  News Five’s Marion Ali visited the scene today and has the details in the following report.

Marion Ali, Reporting

The rubble was still smoldering and threatening to re-ignite when we visited the scene at around ten this morning.  The remains of burnt wood and household appliances were still visible in the charred debris, as crews from the Belize Electricity Limited worked to reconnect power to the unaffected homes and the National Fire Service scoured through the wreck for clues for its cause.  Speculation is that it was the result of an arson, but the findings may be more difficult to ascertain because of the yard’s unkept condition.

Kenneth Mortis, Training Officer, National Fire Service

kenneth mortis

“The fire started from the smaller structure, which was unoccupied, exactly how it started, we are still trying to determine that. Seeing that the building was locked up. It’s not in use, so we’re trying to figure out it started.”

Marion Ali

“It didn’t have electrification, did it?”

Kenneth Mortis

“No it didn’t.”

Marion Ali

“Burning candles?”

Kenneth Mortis

“Neither.”

Marion Ali

“Lamps?”

Kenneth Mortis

“Neither.”

Doreth Forman and her family occupied the second house.  She did not want to speak on camera, but she told us that she was in San Pedro visiting with a friend at the time.  But by information she has picked up from her neighbors, she strongly suspects an ex-boyfriend is the culprit.  Training Officer with the National Fire Service, Kenneth Mortis, told News Five that the department is not ruling out any possibility.

Kenneth Mortis

“In a case like this Marion we try to look at it from all angles.  They do have someone hold and I guess that will be pending investigation.  If the Fire Department can find something to substantiate that it is an arson then it will be dealt with as a criminal matter. They only managed to come out with whatever it was that was on their backs.  Everything in their possession was lost to the blaze.”

Neighbors told News Five that while they too ran out with only their clothes on their backs, they are grateful that the only damage was the scorching to their houses.

Voice of: Carla Alvarez, House Scorched in Fire

“My husband just get up and seh Carla fire and I jump up and I look through my window. And when I si di fire my husband tell em get wah pillow case so we can put in our important documents in it and so we got dat and den we just come down di stairs, open di door and we came into di yard. And den I tell my husband we cant get out through di gate cause of di flame so he tell me we had to jump the fence and we put a bench by di fence and we climb over.  Only di outside ketch fire and one curtain. We noh get no wata damage or nothing.”

Marion Ali

“You’ll have to make some repairs. Are you insured?”

Voice of: Carla Alvarez

“Yeah we’re insured.”

ruben cal

Ruben Cal, House Scorched in Fire

“I just feel the heat coming through the window because I mi deh too close to di fire dah my window so I start feel di heat and when I look up through di window I see di flame pan di lee house; wah lee bungalow house. Ih mi already flame up already so first thing I do dah just cut off di switch box, grab mi kids weh mi deh pan di bed and wake up mi family mek dehn get out.”

While the congestion through Petticoat Alley, coupled with high winds throughout the night posed a major challenge to fire fighters, they still managed to prevent the blaze from spreading to other properties.

Kenneth Mortis

“It was difficult. The wind was really pushing the inferno almost in our face so we had to kind of like relocate, readjust, sit back, look at our tactics and then do another assessment. As we progressed we just kept assessing the situation. There was a point in time when the wind took a three-sixty and instead of pushing it to the east, it was pushing so that kind of worked in our favor because if you look across the street the nearest house is quite a couple feet away. So had it continued push eastward then we would have probably been still out here right now. It was good tactics by our guys and a little luck of course.”

Marion Ali for News Five.

Neither the buildings nor their contents were insured.  Fire officials estimate the losses to the affected family to be around forty-five thousand dollars.

According to Doreth Foreman who occupied the second house, she and her family were saved when one of her cousins got up to use the bathroom and encountered the inferno.  She said there was no time to save anything but their lives.  This afternoon Police Press Officer, Sergeant Fitzroy Yearwood confirmed to News Five that they have a suspect in custody.

Sgt Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer

fitzroy yearwood

“It’s rather early in the investigation but our investigators have a person detained.”

Marion Ali

“Is that based on what fire fighter have found here at the scene or based on eye witness accounts?”

Sgt Fitzroy Yearwood

“Based on a bit of both; fire fighters’ report and eyewitnesses accounts.  So what the investigators are trying to do now is trying to phase out from that to see whether or not charges will be levied against the person in custody.”