Arson suspected in string of fires
And from politics in the capital city we go south to Punta Gorda where police and the Fire Department are investigating a series of fires that completely gutted four houses in the southern village of Crique Sarco, Toledo. The fires have attracted the attention of police because the dwellings belong to three members of one family: a mother, a daughter, a son and the fourth, the caretaker of a neighbouring guesthouse. The first blaze occurred before ten last Monday night and destroyed an eighteen by forty foot wooden and thatch roof structure, owned by fifty year old Beatrice Bo, the former chairlady of the village. Bo now lives in Punta Gorda, but had some personal belongings inside the house. Fire officials could not definitively determine what caused the blaze since everything was burnt to the ground. There is no electricity in Crique Sarco and Bo was last in the house days before the fire.
But what really triggered an investigation pointing to arson was that the three other houses belonged to family members of Bo and occurred within days of each other. On Wednesday morning around six, not even two days after Bo had lost her dwelling, a detached kitchen belonging to her daughter, twenty-eight year old Zenaida Coc, which was situated right across the street, went down by fire. Again no one was at home at the time because Coc had left the village on Monday evening for Punta Gorda and her husband was in Placencia where he is employed.
The third blaze occurred on Thursday night around seven-thirty and gutted another wooden and thatch structure measuring twenty-four by eighteen feet. This dwelling was owned and occupied by thirty-four year old Marcos Coy. Coy, who is the health nurse for the area, was out at the time attending to a patient in the village.
The fourth and last fire occurred around six-thirty on Saturday morning and the house belonged to thirty-four year old Caliztro Bo, the son of Beatrice Bo. Caliztro, who is a farmer, was also not at home when his thirteen by sixteen foot wooden and thatch roof house went up in smoke. Punta Gorda Police are looking closely at an estranged relative of the Bo’s who they say is currently at odds with the family. Meanwhile, Deputy Officer in Charge of the P.G. Fire Station, Eldora Rubio, told News Five today that the cause of the fires could not be confirmed because everything was completely destroyed in each case and there were no eyewitness to the incidents.
