A fire on Vernon Street this afternoon destroyed as many as three houses. A resident who spoke with News Five off camera, told us that she was alerted to the blaze when a family member informed her that a wooden structure belonging to her sister was being consumed by flames that were already spreading to […]
The dry season has brought with it several wildfires that have been reported in western Belize District. We have reported of fires that have been burning in the vicinity of Gracie Rock, near mile twenty on the George Price Highway, as well as other infernos that have been recorded in the vicinity of the Belize […]
Every year around this time, the Belize National Fire Service is summoned more often than it can respond to calls of bushfires that rage out of control and threaten homes and sometimes lives. This year is no different. In fact, fire officials believe that this will be the worst yet, simply because bushfires have started […]
House fires are as bad as forest fires and can also easily be prevented if the time is taken to ensure that nothing is left turned on and unattended. At this time of year, people are planning to travel for the Easter and many times they go and leave electrical appliances plugged in and turned […]
A family in Monkey River Village is seeking assistance to rebuild their home after it was destroyed by fire last week. Danette Young left her house to visit her mom in the same community when, approximately fifteen minutes later, someone called to inform her that the building was on fire. When she arrived at the […]
Over the years, St. Matthew’s Government School has been burglarized and vandalized by thieves who broke into classrooms during the summer vacation when teachers and students were away from the compound. They were able to rebound from the losses they incurred when the intruders made off with valuable classroom items. But what happened on Saturday […]
A man and a woman are displaced after a fire destroyed their homes through an alley on Euphrates Avenue in Belize City. The blaze was first spotted sometime after four this morning at a wooden house situated at the back of a yard, but it spread quickly to two other houses. By the time the […]
A freak accident just off the coast of Caye Caulker on Saturday afternoon has left a well-known fisherman dead. The grieving family is still trying to come to terms with what took place that resulted in Jose Castro’s fatal injuries. While the police department is conducting an investigation of its own, so is the Belize […]
On Saturday evening, a fire broke out inside the upper flat of a two-storey wooden structure on Taylor’s Alley. Brent Garoy and his family of five resided in the upper flat, and on the lower floor is the business space for the Taylor’s Alley Industry Zone. The fire consumed the little Garoy had, including the […]
A fire spread quickly to consume two structures in the Lake Independence area around ten-thirty on Sunday morning. The property in which the fire broke had an illegal electrical drop and within minutes, an adjacent two-storey concrete and wooden structure that housed two families began burning. Fortunately, everyone got out before the buildings were gutted. […]
A house fire on Curassow Street in Belize City has left a mother of seven publicly pleading for assistance. Judith Parham was paying her sister a visit at the hospital when she received a phone call informing her that her home for the past sixteen years was on fire. There are speculations that the fire […]
We also heard from Kenneth Mortis, the Fire Station Supervisor at the Belize National Fire Service on this morning’s fire in Belize City. According to Mortis, investigators suspect that the fire was unintentionally set by the victim’s relative. Kenneth Mortis, Fire Station Supervisor, Belize National Fire Service “We concluded that the fire was, I […]
Multi-hazard early warning systems are playing an integral role in the preservation of lives across the globe, in the event of an impending hazard. For example, when a tropical cyclone is expected to impact Belize, through its early warning system the National Meteorological Service of Belize can make predictions about the storm’s projected path, its […]
And while multi-hazard early warnings systems have yielded a great deal of success within the Caribbean, Executive Director Elizabeth Riley, of Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, says that to truly realize the vision of the UN Secretary General, as it pertains to early warning systems for all, there is a need for greater access to […]
We also spoke with Doctor Samuel about the responses promoted by the initiative in the event that a school is destroyed by a natural disaster. He also touched on the issue of technology in education and its limited availability and access to marginalized communities. These are critical issues pertaining to disaster risk reduction. Dr. […]
A devastating late-morning fire on Simon Lamb Street in Belize City has left up to twelve individuals displaced. A two-storey wooden apartment building occupied by eighty-five-year-old landlord Neftale Martinez, his son and at least eleven other persons, caught fire just after eleven a.m. The fire moved through the building so quickly that there was no […]
Mortis also responded to criticisms that the department’s approach to fighting the fire contributed to its spread. There was also disapproval coming from onlookers over the fact that the fire truck ran out of water and had to leave the burning building to go and refill. Here is how Mortis responded. Kenneth Mortis, Station […]
On Thursday we brought you the story of the fire that destroyed the house of an elderly woman in Orange Walk. Sixty-one-year-old Bernadette Allen woke up to find her house ablaze at both the front and back entrances, luckily she managed to escape. A neighbor who was close to the family said that it was […]
Tonight, fire officials are investigating how a fire in Orange Walk Town burned down an elderly woman’s house early this morning. However, even before those findings are out, the allegation is that it was her mentally challenged grandson who did it. Tonight the elderly citizen, sixty-one-year-old Bernadette Allen, is distraught. She saved nothing when her […]
A fire completely gutted a house at mile fourteen and a half off the George Price Highway today. News Five arrived at the scene when the blaze was still in progress and firefighters from the Ladyville Fire Station were extinguishing the fire. The twenty-five by fifteen-foot metal house, occupied by Marlon Longsworth and his family, […]
There was an earthquake that rattled the Honduran coast this morning and some of the tremors were said to be felt in Belize. The first concern Belizeans had as a result of the news was whether there would be a tsunami watch to follow. But despite the concern the five-point-five magnitude earthquake was not significant […]
Several members of the Garbutt family are tonight without a roof over their heads after a fire consumed a pair of structures within the family yard on Gentle Avenue. Most of the family was not at home, except for Errol Garbutt. The fire broke out inside his home before spreading quickly to the adjacent two-storey […]
Ten persons, including three children, are displaced, following a fire in the Vietnam area of Seine Bight Village on Monday morning. The blaze swept through a yard that had four houses. Two of those structures were gutted while the other two received varying degrees of damage. News Five’s Marion Ali has that story in the […]
While the fire victims are going to need all the help they can get to start over, the big question is what caused the fire that set them back. Today, Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor with the National Fire Service, told the media that the investigation may never determine the exact cause, but electrical faultiness and […]
Tasha Anderson lived literally just a few feet away from Macaria Arzu’s house that was completely destroyed. Anderson told us that she suffered very minor losses but her house is still habitable. But fire victim, Rosendo Requeña told us that the distance the fire trucks have to travel from Placencia to Seine Bight to extinguish […]
