The owners of a Belize City bakery and fire officials are still trying to determine how a fire started last night in Port Loyola. News Five’s Janelle Chanona was at the scene. Janelle Chanona, Reporting This morning’s rain hasn’t managed to wash away the strong smell of smoke or the charred remains of a once […]
Punta Gorda Police are investigating a series of fires on Sunday, which they believe may be linked. The first was just after one am when Herman Muschamp’s thatched roof shed on Cayetano Street caught fire. Two hours later Winston Lopez reported that someone threw a quart bottle filled with gasoline through a bedroom window in […]
Many Belize City residents have fond memories of weekend dances at the Riverside Hall on North Front Street. Others remember it as the headquarters of Bradley’s Bottling Works. While those days are long gone, there was a certain amount of regret when the old wooden building was destroyed by fire this morning. But a more […]
Today investigators still have no clue about what caused a building in Ladyville to explode, destroying three walls and the roof, early Sunday morning. Residents nearby say they heard two loud bangs and when they looked outside, they saw San Benito Grocery in ruins. The owner, Edward Bennett Sr., says he has no idea what, […]
This weekend nine families left homeless by a fire in New Maya Mopan village will move into their new homes. The fire on January twenty-seventh started in the fire hearth of one of the thatched houses and quickly spread to the nearby homes. Since the disaster, the Government, the United Democratic Party, the Belize Red […]
“Blown to smithereens” is the only way to describe what happened to a shop on Ayacary Street in Ladyville early Sunday morning. Tonight the owners of San Benito Grocery, the Police, Fire Department and BDF still do not know the cause of the blast, which blew off the roof and turned three walls into rubble. […]
In Belize City fires are becoming an all too frequent event and it seems like every week a family is left homeless. But this week the fire was in Belmopan in the community of Maya Mopan. Yesterday the blaze swept through nine homes leaving dozens homeless, most of them children. Janelle Chanona visited Maya Mopan […]
A fire in Maya Mopan, Belmopan has left fifty people homeless. Sources in Belmopan tell News Five that earlier this afternoon, a fire began in one of the thatched houses of the village and rapidly spread to other homes. We understand that it took some time for villagers to get water to the scene because […]
This evening a fire on Waight Street in the Port Loyola area has left a family of seven homeless. The fire started around three forty-five and quickly engulfed the wooden house. According to John Garraway, the owner, he had just left the house to go to a shop and it was when he was walking […]
It has happened again, two more children have burned to death in their home after being left alone. This time however, there were reports to Social Services that the children had been neglected in the past. The report did not come from neighbors, but from staff members at the Karl Heusner Memorial who treated one […]
Just after two this morning, residents of Nurse Seay Street in Belize City got a whiff of smoke that sent them into the streets. Once there, they saw house number eight engulfed in flames. The Fire Department doused the blaze before the flames could spread to other homes. The department says their investigation into the […]
On Friday we managed to get out a news report while the flames were still blazing… and in the cold light of New Year’s Day neighborhood residents saw just how lucky they were that more damage wasn’t done. Six houses were affected in the New Year’s Eve fire at the corner of Cemetery Road and […]
A tourist from the United States has died while SCUBA diving off San Pedro. On the afternoon of January first, thirty-five year old Robert Marks of Westminster, Colorado was ascending from a depth of around eighty feet at the Amigos wreck site and signaled to divemaster Carlos Garbutt that all was well. But by the […]
Up until around five o’clock this evening we here at News Five were preparing to usher in the year two thousand with a shorthanded newscast followed by a long night of reveling. Events intervened, however, and I’ve just returned from the scene of a tragic fire. The blaze, which started in a two storey wooden […]
It was a tragic twist on the rhyme of the ancient mariner. San Pedranos on Friday night found themselves with “water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink”… or to extinguish a raging fire. With the Caribbean Sea only a coconut’s toss from the flames two buildings were destroyed and several others were lucky […]
Fifteen trainees graduated from the National Fire Service third basic training course this afternoon. Prior to the course, none of the participants had any experience in firefighting and it is the first time in Belize’s history that the service will have two full time female firefighters. News Five attended the passing out ceremony this evening […]
The streets of downtown Belize City were filled with holiday shoppers on Saturday morning, but all heads turned when the cry of “fire” broke out. Smoke was billowing from the direction of the southern foreshore and within minutes fire trucks were making their way through the tangle of traffic. Two buildings were ravaged and ten […]
While the family of Ezekiel Nesbitt is now more convinced than ever that his death was the result of foul play, indications from the Cayo District are that a child’s death there was an accident. Six year old Theodoro Sotz of Roaring Creek is believed to have drowned after falling off a river ferry this […]
Police say a Honduran man found at Long Coco Caye on Saturday appears to have died after a series of electric shocks. The body identified as Manuel de Jesus Madrid was discovered by a fisherman from Big Falls, Toledo. Sources tell News Five the clothing had been removed and there were bruises to various parts […]
Belizean firefighters may soon find themselves part of a Canadian exchange program. But while Fire Chief Henry Baizar and a Canadian counterpart, Bob Beckett were exploring the possibilities over the past few days, an important piece of equipment arrived. News Five was at the Port Authority this morning for the handing over of a Canadian […]
This week, the staff at Family Court has not only been working to resolve problems facing their clients, but has spent the past four days dealing with a problem of their own. Water has flooded the main offices and bathroom, making it difficult for staff to conduct business. The water, which has been pouring in […]
Just when we thought the hurricane season had calmed down, today yet another tropical depression was upgraded to a tropical storm, and it’s in the same general area where Mitch became a hurricane last year. At three o’clock this evening, the fifteenth tropical depression of the season was officially named Tropical Storm Katrina. The storm […]
For the second time this year, the Belize Fire Service held a simulated fire exercise in a congested area of Belize City. This time the “fire” was at forty-two Wagner’s Lane. Operations Manager Ted Smith says the Department was more than satisfied by the work of the firefighters. Ted Smith, Operations Manager “It is always […]
Along with the “Mitch Memories,” tonight some are remembering the ill-fated ship Fantome. The ship and its crew of thirty-one sank in the Gulf of Honduras as it tried to escape the deadly path of Mitch. Investigators representing the family of the lost crew are still trying to get to the bottom of what happened […]
While Hurricane Mitch may only be a bad memory for many Belizeans, one year ago, the threat of severe structural damage and possible loss of life was only too real. But even though the storm sidestepped Belize, the Inter-American Development Bank put the wheels in motion for Belize’s largest loan from the IDB so far. […]
