Tragedy struck in Pomona village just after 9 last night when a wooden structure belonging to 45-year-old Vernon Williams Sr. went up in flames. And by the time the smoke cleared Williams was found dead, burnt beyond all recognition. But, did he plan his own terrible end. This afternoon Cherisse Halsall travelled to Pomona village to find out how and why the fire was set.
45-year-old Vernon Alexander Williams died last night under mysterious circumstances. Rumours abound that he may have become suicidal due to an ongoing domestic dispute.
Willams' family, most of them residents of Pomona village, collectively decided to refrain from comment. But ahead of that decision, our team managed to speak to his younger brother. He claimed to not know much but said that Vernon will certainly be missed.
Joseph Henry Williams "My brother, he lost his life last night in a fire. When I reached here last night the house was already down to ground and that was it. All I could see was his burnt body on the ground and that's it we couldn't do anything else. He was a great mechanic, a refrigeration technician, a welder, electrical and other stuff. He was a loving brother to all of us and it's so sad, but we are going to miss him."
But whatever the circumstances of Willams' death one thing's for sure the fire department had a 12-mile delay in responding
That's because the fire station in Pomona has long been abandoned.
Leaving fire response teams to be forced to travel all the way from Dangriga
And this afternoon, in Belize City, Station Supervisor told us that the fire may not have been accidental.
Kenneth Mortis - Station Supervisor "Now the position where Mr. Vernon's body was found was located off the bed on the floor but literally in between two windows, which posed the question as to why Mr. Vernon didn't make an attempt to climb out the window seeing that the window wasn't burglar barred. We have information from our counterparts in Dangriga who stated that just a couple of weeks ago Mr. Vernon was experiencing or he was talking about depression. The state of depression has hit him so hard that my counterpart even stated that Mr. Vernon went on to talk about suicidal attempts. That information which revealed itself today vs. the findings that he was in the remains of this fire might have well been a means and ways to take himself out of the situation. We did not find anything to support a malicious act from the outside of the building whereby I'm talking about accelerants used we did not find any of that from the outside so we are focused on focusing or narrowing our investigations onto the inside as to determine whether it might have been a fire that he may have purposely set."
And there is also some question about whether his car was independently torched
Kenneth Mortis "Yes, the car a Honda civic was also destroyed along with the said structure at this moment we had our team out on the scene to try and ascertain exactly where the fire started or how the fire started, unfortunately, we were lacking sufficient evidence to determine the exact cause of the fire, hence until further notice or until the team has exhausted all other angles, this fire remains undetermined."
An undetermined fire and an undetermined death. Whether just an accident or the result of a tortured and broken heart, a final answer may come from Willams' post-mortem.
Vernon Williams Sr. leaves behind 4 children including son Vernon Williams Jr.
