A fire dangerously close to a gas station
A fire dangerously close to a Belize City gas station caused a scare over the weekend. The blaze left one man homeless and caused damages to a house nearby. The homeless man says he was home when the blaze started, but his neighbor says he wasn’t. Duane Moody has that story.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Fifty-nine year old Herbert Saunders remains homeless tonight following a fire at his residence on Vernon Street. It started sometime around one on Saturday afternoon and in proximity to the Uno Gas Station on Youth for the Future Drive. It brought a scare for residents in the immediate area and firefighters were quick on the scene to put out the blaze. By then, the small wooden structure belonging to Herbert Saunders was completely destroyed.
Herbert Saunders, Fire Victim
Herbert Saunders
“On Saturday, while I was lying in the bed reading, a church sister came and asked me to finish her bicycle that I was doing for her. While I was doing that, I saw flames coming out the window and I went in there to see what was happening, but it was too far gone and I couldn’t do anything. I have no running water so I came out back and the people called fire engine. Everything in the house is gone; everything.”
Duane Moody
“Was there any electricity inside?”
Herbert Saunders
“I had no running water, no electricity.”
For Marilyn Turner and her family, it was a frightening experience when the blaze burst through her wall and window. She says that aside from the burnt wall, there was also water damage to items inside the house.
Marilyn Turner, House Affected by Fire
“We start to see blaze coming through the top of the roof and the bathroom window. We looked outdoor and we saw the next door house on fire. We started to panic. Charles started to move out the things and then people started to come in and helping him. We had to call the fire station and the fire truck came and started to put out the fire. We had the bathroom window completely destroyed. We had the top roof, part of it caved in and it broken and we had to take off the hardboard from top of the roof and we had to go up there and put water to out off the flames. So that was completely destroyed too. And the siding on the house.”
Herbert Saunders
Marilyn Turner
“I had one bed, a table, a kerosene stove.”
Duane Moody
“So nothing was left on to have caused the fire?”
Herbert Saunders
“No, no, no. As a matter of fact, the stove was giving trouble. See weh I use…that fire heart down there.”
Turner believes otherwise…
Marilyn Turner
“I think it was negligence on his behalf, Mister Herbert next door. That he wasn’t at home at the time when he was cooking and he went out and I guess when he came back, the stove was already on fire.”
Saunders says his estimated loss is about two thousand dollars. Duane Moody for News Five.
