A land dispute that had been going for thirteen years came to a fiery end early this afternoon in Belize City and fire and police investigators suspect arson. The blaze totally engulfed the home of Audrey Garbutt who reportedly lives in San Pedro and had only a few possessions in the two bedroom wooden house situated on Electric Avenue. The family strongly suspects that the fire was deliberately set by their next door neighbour whose concrete home sits on the same property just in front of the Garbutt’s property
According to the homeowner’s son, Deon Garbutt who did not want to appear on camera, he blames it on the neighbour because fifteen minutes before the blaze erupted, he claims that neighbor threatened to burn the house down. When 7NEWS arrived on the scene the prime suspect was not around; he is presently bring sought by police for questioning. We must stress that so far authorities have no concrete evidence against him, and have only the statement given to them by Deon Garbutt. However based on what their preliminary investigations have revealed they do suspect the fire was deliberately set by someone – and Garbutt says he knows who that someone is.
Voice of Deon Garbutt, Son of Fire Victim
“We ketch into a conflict like 15 minutes ago on Mahogany and he threatened to burn down my mom’s house because he claims the land the house is on, he says no one can’t live on that land there because I have someone at the house who was watching the house and he said nobody can live in the house. He told me that to hell with me and my mom. Somebody came and told me that Deon your mom’s house is on fire and when me and my friend looked we started to see smoke and we said his man is serious for real, this man came and burn
down my old lady’s house for real. He really doesn’t want anyone to live by the house so he burned down the house. This fire is caused due to land because he wants that land there.”
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor - National Fire Service
“When arrived here Jackie we saw this house in the background full engulfed in flame. There was no immediate persons from the neighbourhood that were attached, I guess the crowd came after we arrived. Anyways our team got into operation to extinguish this fire and afterwards a brief investigation commenced.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
Is there anything suspicious about this blaze?
Kenneth Mortis,
“Yes there is. Seeing that the place is only being used on occasion by one young man who was not at home, it leads us to believe that it was a case of arson. Our investigation continues into the matter and we are working along with the police to try and detect exactly what type of accelerant was used to set this house ablaze.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
You think liquid was thrown or something?
Kenneth Mortis,
“It is possible that liquid was thrown. We have the smell of such but we cannot find the trace so we need to probably take some samples and from there the police will probably take over. This smell is concentrated in the further corner of the room situated on my left.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
And you believe that is where it started?
Kenneth Mortis,
“Yes from our investigations that is where the fire started and from there it spread itself in and around the building.”
Voice of Deon Garbutt,
“Only a sofa was in there and some plastic chairs and some carpet; not really anything in there. We had things in there but people in the neighbourhood break into the house and they take the things because my old lady live in San Pedro, she has her business out in San Pedro. I am looking for justice, I really want justice because what this man did was wrong.”
It is believed that the fire started in one of the two rooms situated at the rear of the building and quickly spread throughout the house. While the building and its contents were not insured it is the property is valued at over ten thousand dollars.
