Fire destroys home of Edgil Villafranco

A house occupied by Edgil Villafranco on Coffin Street in Belize City withstood the wrath of Hurricane Richard this past weekend. But today Villafranco was at work when he got word that his house was destroyed in another type of disaster. At around eleven this morning, shortly after electricity was restored in the area, a fire broke inside Villafranco’s house. The smoke alerted the neighbors and Genevieve Gabourel made the 911 call. Gabourel says the house could have been have been saved if the response of the National Fire Service was quicker.

Genevieve Gabourel, Neighbor, Fire Victim

genevieve gabourel

“I was in my kitchen cooking and my mom hollered for me and told me that smoke was coming out of Edgil house top. I grabbed the phone and I called 911. When I called 911 somebody came on and said what is the problem. I told them we have a fire at ten Coffin. Weh di fire deh? I seh ten Coffin Street please come, di fire noh come out yet, only smoke di come out ah di house. I hung up, I came out and I called them again. When I called them again ih tek bout five minutes before dehn reach. So basically that’s all I saw.

The electricity had just come on an hour ago. From Richard we noh have current til one hour prior to the fire and he seh ih noh lef nothing on so I really noh know weh really cause di fire. But I think if the fire department dehn mi respond more faster, I think dehn could ah mi end up di save di house because when we look out all weh happen dah mi smoke was coming out of the house, neva si no fire.”

Delahnie Bain

“So everything inside was destroyed?”

Genevieve Gabourel

“Everything was destroyed.”