There was a fire in Belize City around 6:00 this morning. It happened on East Canal where a two story wooden structure was flattened.
Tonight, both the tenant downstairs and the owner upstairs are pointing fingers at each other.
Monica Bodden got both sides of the story:
Winston Soberanis - Home Owner
"I got the news about 15 minutes to 6 this morning from a young man who was working out. He told me that my house was on fire. He lone he his bike and when I came here I saw the place on fire. The fire started at this window here."
Monica Bodden
"It was on the bottom part of the house?"
Winston Soberanis - Home Owner
"Yes, downstairs. It looks like the young lady left her kids and went over at her mother's house. It seems that the kids were playing with matches. That was how the fire started."
Monica Bodden
"So the fire started on the lower flat of the house?"
Winston Soberanis - Home Owner
"On the lower flat - downstairs on the left window. It's not upstairs."
Monica Bodden
"You reside upstairs?"
Winston Soberanis - Home Owner
"I live upstairs."
Monica Bodden
"When you here on the scene this morning, the entire house was already engulfed in flames?"
Winston Soberanis - Home Owner
"Everywhere downstairs was already red, I couldn't do anything. I couldn't run upstairs and move my things."
Monica Bodden reporting
The fire which started around 6 this morning spread quickly and in just a matter of minutes this century old two story wooden structure was engulfed in flames.
Winston Soberanis is the home owner of the 2 story wooden house. He resides upstairs - while his tenant Adra Arnold - her 3 children and her husband occupied the lower flat.
According to neighbors who were on the scene this morning - the fire started on the lower flat of the house. At the time, only Arnold's 2 children were at home.
Adra Arnold - Fire Victim
"This morning around 6, I got up and left the baby sleeping and came across at my mother to borrow an iron. Not even 5 minutes while I was away my brother cried out that fire is at my house."
"I ran by and I met my baby through the alley."
Monica Bodden
"So someone took them out?"
Adra Arnold - Fire Victim
"Yes ma'am."
Monica Bodden
"You know how the fire started?"
Adra Arnold - Fire Victim
"I don't know how it started."
And while Arnold is lucky to have her children alive, they have lost everything to the fire.
But what really caused the early morning blaze?
Adra Arnold - Fire Victim
"All I know is that I left my son sleeping with the fan. That's all I know."
Monica Bodden
"You didn't manage to save anything?"
Adra Arnold - Fire Victim
"Nothing, only the clothes I have on right now. The baby had on his brief, that's all he ended up with. I don't know if it's the wires on the house."
Monica Bodden
"You talk to the fire department?"
Adra Arnold - Fire Victim
"According to them, they say that they would have come to do an investigation."
And same too as Arnold, Winston Soberanis, owner of the house didn't manage to save anything.
He told us his total lost in household items and his house that wasn't insured.
Winston Soberanis - Home Owner
"Thank God for the cement house there, because of that being there the other houses could have also burnt down."
Monica Bodden
"You lost everything?"
Winston Soberanis - Home Owner
"Everything, clothes, and my passport - everything is gone. The total loss in value from my house is $8,000. The house is valued at $45,000."
And this evening we contacted fire officials who told us that the fire started from the lower flat of the house which is occupied by Arnold and her children.
They also mentioned the cause of the fire was from matches that were being played with by Arnold's 5 year old child. If you would like to assist Arnold and her children you can do so at Atlantic Bank account number 210901764 or you can call telephone number 666-1697 or 650-4248.
