Granny saved from fire by grandson, neighbours

A Belize City granny is lucky to be alive tonight having been saved from her burning house by her grandson and a pair of quick thinking neighbours. At around four this morning, fire broke out in the lower flat of Icitadel Flowers’ house at 156 Neal Pen Road. The four children and two adults living downstairs woke up quickly and were able to run outside… but Flowers, asleep alone in the upper flat, was trapped by the fire and thickening smoke.

Icitadel Flowers, Saved from Burning House
?About four so, I am upstairs sleeping in my bed and then I just hear, ?bau!? like something burst, and then I peep through the window deh and when I look I saw blaze coming out the door deh so. And then I scream out and then fi she and they wake up then and she di holla, ?Wake up the children them.? And them time I upstairs and the smoke di try suffocate me and when I open the door so, I can?t come because the fire already deh up so, the blaze deh up and I can?t come out.?

Stewart Krohn
?So you were trapped in your room then??

Icitadel Flowers
?I was trapped in the house up deh, because I come out the room and the smoke di suffocate me. And then I try come out through the door when I try open the door I can?t come out, so I gone so and hail my next grandson, wake him. And then he get up and then they di holla, ?Weh granny deh, weh granny deh.? And then I hear she reply, ?Granny upstairs, deh upstairs.? And then they come around to the back and then holla for me, ?Granny, granny try get to the back window.? And dah through there he took me through.?

?I couldn?t come out at all, every minute where I deh I drop down because the smoke and I can?t breathe good. And then I reach the window, then he told me, ?Granny put your foot pan the chair weh deh side deh.? And then I feel fi the chair because I can?t see because the smoke. And I stand up then he say, ?Try put your foot through the window.? And dah so I get my foot across the window and then he had his hand and he say, ?Granny, hug me up,? and so I hold him round so. And by that time I feel weak, weak, weak because the smoke and then I noh know how he get me on top of that place to the back, the lee house.?

While Flowers’ grandson, twenty-two year old Andy Forbes, was hauling her to safety, two neighbours: Chester Haylock and Raymond Blake, manned their hoses to put out the fire in time to save much of the house.

Raymond Blake, Put Out Fire
?The dog awoke me in the morning. My girl heard the dog barking and she came out and saw the fire and she ran back in and woke me up. So I got up and I start pulling my hose and connecting it on to the water pipe and start wetting the side of the house, and Mr. Haylock came the same time too.?

Chester Haylock, Put Out Fire
?I got one of the pipes them that hooked up strictly with the pressure water on it. And when I heard the noise, me and my wife and my kids them jumped up and we ran outside and when we pushed the door we saw Miss Del house on fire. So I told them grab the hose from underneath the step. And they grabbed the hose, I grabbed one end and my wife ran out with the next end, screwed the nozzle on and I screwed the next nozzle on to the thing and turned on the water and ran outside and we just start to wet down the place.?

The fire was under control by the time firemen reached the scene. Family members could not say how the blaze may have started.