BELIZE CITY FIRE DESTROYS TWO STOREY HOUSE

September 18, 2007

A fire on Usher Street in Belize City has left a number of people homeless. Love News was on the scene last night and spoke to two of the residents of the area.

Resident:

“I don’t know what time it started, but I was sitting out there and I saw the fire starting from there.We’re been calling for the fire engine for so long and nobody is answering 911.One fire truck came and went again and another just came when the house already is burnt up.They have to do better than this because I don’t know what kind of fire department we have.”

Ava Diaz,Love FM:

“From where I’m standing I can’t quite see very well.Is it the one house?”

Resident:

“Two houses are in the yard and both of them burnt down.What happened is that we saw smoke coming from top of one of the roofs of the first room,and we called to the neighbors and yelled fire!When we yelled FIRE nobody was looking,so my oldest son ran to the neighbor downstairs and told him that a fire was upstairs,and that’s how they ran to the back of the house.But this is now fair because the fire truck took so long to come.,and we’re calling 90 and 911 and nobody came out.No water was in the pump,that’s what they said when we called.They had to take the pump to full up.”

Ava Diaz,Love FM:

“And tell us about the house that is on fire that is damaged.”

Resident:

“It was and up and down house.Two houses were in the yard.I don’t know what happened to the one in the back,but the one in the front,that’s the one that the fire started from upstairs from the front room.That is house number one.”

Ava Diaz,Love FM:

“You’re saying that the house has no electricity.”

Resident:

“No ma’am.It has no electricity.Only the one in the back has electricity.According to what I know, you have six people in the back and we have four in the house,a couple and two kids that are downstairs.”

Today we spoke to Fire Chief Henry Baizer.

Fire Chief Henry Baizer:

“Immediately we got a call about the fire,and we responded with one truck from here and we informed the other truck from the south side.The truck from here arrived within three or four minutes according to our records and the next truck arrived about two or three minutes thereafter.The first truck commenced fighting the fire,and knocked the fire down within ten minutes according to our records.The other truck from south side arrived shortly after,and when the truck arrived,we finished the job with water from that truck and also that truck got water from the open source.From our investigation,the fire started from the family upstairs,and there was no electricity in the house and a part of the family went out and left on the candle.That is where the fire started from.When they saw the fire they were shouting for the lady upstairs but there was no one there and we got a call from a concerned citizen and we responded.”

Ava Diaz.Love FM:

“What time was that?”

Fire Chief Henry Baizer:

“That was at 8:27 am,and we were there shortly after.People were calling us.I don’t know anything about that.As you’ve heard over the radio and over the news,the thing is that we respond when we are called.If the person who called us to inform us of the fire,we received that call and we responded.”

We asked Baizer about the damages caused by the fire.

Fire Chief Henry Baizer:

“Both up and down stairs of the house was buried in fire.When we arrived there,the whole house was engulfed in flames.So the officer that responded who was in charge then will have to make a decision.What is the main concern.There were two houses very close by and so,while the fought the fire to keep the flames down at the same time,we tried not to allow the next two houses from catching a blaze.So that was exactly what they did.People are complaining and saying that they don’t see the good of not allowing another.It is hard to say to people that well,the house is already gone,but that is a decision we have to make.We don’t want three fires in our hands so we would have to decide that and there’s nothing you can do about that.Even if you out it,everything in there is already gone.So we decided just to keep water on that house and also at the same time,not to allow the house nearby to catch a blaze and that’s what we did.”

Residents who spoke to us last night said they called nine-one-one and nine-zero. We asked Baizer which of the numbers the Fire Service responds to.

Fire Chief Henry Baizer:

“We respond to both of these reputes,but it is better for them to call my engineer because that call comes directly to us.If you call 911 that goes to the police and then the police gives us the call.That is why I cannot respond to that.But normally it would go to the police and the police would send the call through to us and that’s how the procedure works.And normally when we respond to a fire we respond through vehicles.Every call for a fire,we respond to two vehicles – one from here and one from south side.People are saying that they truck fly pass the house.We get to the fire scene and the truck that responded first will go to the scene and start to fight the fire.The next truck will come and go pass the scene because the next truck’s job is to find water,to get a good water source so it will start sending water to the scene and preparing to get water from the open source.When it is ready to do that,he will radio and there will be a short break in fire fighting,less than a minute or maybe just over a minute,and then water will come back on and they will continue to fight the fire for hours and hours with lots of water.”

Baizer said when speaking to the media about a fire it is important to keep things in perspective.

Fire Chief Henry Baizer:

“People,in general,when there’s a fire,if it’s a minute it seems like ten minutes.I heard on some of the radio stations and televisions that the fire was burning for 45 minutes.That particular house or any house of that nature,within ten minutes would burn down flat like there’s nothing there.It will just turn into ash like nothing.So I can’t say it was burning for 45 minutes.People need to make sensible reports because people listening and not knowing exactly what is going on,it’s not right.I think some of the media is blowing things out of proportion.They go to anybody and broadcast the news live and they put us,the fire department in a bad light.I’m not here to defend the fire department,I’m just saying exactly what we have done and we will continue to do exactly what we need to do to protect lives in the city.”

Fire Chief Henry Baizer.

|

|