And while the residents have very specific grievances against the Fire Department - today Statom Supervisor Kenneth Mortis said they responded in a timely manner:
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, National Fire Service
"First and foremost, I must recognize the assistance of neighbors who played a very crucial role in additional manpower to the on-duty firefighting personnel. Again, with the six on-duty personnel, we had an additional five who came off duty to compliment that team, hence the reason I believe we could have managed that fire almost as quickly as we did. We learned that the addresses for the building affected was 125, 127 and 133 Albert Street, respectively, whereby the fire started from the middle of the building which represented 127 Albert Street, that being the establishment of Clara's kitchen."
"What we learnt was they were in the back where the kitchen was located doing some cooking and weren't cognizant of the fact that their building was on fire. They were alerted by a neighbor who literally called them telling them their house is on fire. Unfortunately, by then the fire had reached the stage where it then jumped the house to 133 and partial fire damage to 125."
Reporter
"In there any indication what was the origin of the fire?"
Kenneth Mortis
"The origin of the fire has led to an electrical flaw. It's an unfortunate situation. Operating as a cook out of your home is a much more high demand than that of a restaurant and why would I say that? I mean we know that that particular structure was an approximate 103 years old. I have no indication as to when was the last time that building did an electrical rewiring, so we know that over time these electrical components break down and hence the reason we have electrical flaws and that's one of the primary cause."
Reporter
"Member of the public out there were pointed and critical of the fire department. They say they took an interminable time to arrive, they say over an hour."
Kenneth Mortis
"I will not put the department in a position to seem like we go in a back and forth. That's never our objective. However, I can say that what seems in real life 5 minute in the line of an emergency, sees like forever. Another factor we must take into consideration and this is the million-dollar question I always ask everybody on the ground - which number did you call? There is a difference between 990 which represents the fire department's hotline versus 911 which represents the police hotline."
Reporter
"Would you say that you are pleased with the response from your team here, because Miss Usher is saying that she believes her home could have been saved."
Kenneth Mortis
"I am satisfied with the response. We received the call and upon receipt we took approximately 4 minutes to leave and arrived from Marion Jones to the opposite side of town in weather condition and vehicular traffic. Those are two elements we had to compete with today for us to effectively arrive at that location and to mitigate the damage from that fire."
Reporter
"People out there are also saying that you arrived without water. I understand the truck has a finite amount of water which is dispensed very quickly when you are fighting a fire, in no time at all really. What's you take on it?"
Kenneth Mortis
"Again, this is the curse that firemen we will take to our graves - we are always late and we have no water. We have 2 fire trucks that covers the entire Belize City. Of the 2 fire trucks we have a 400 gallon capacity and have a 1000 gallon capacity. A fire of that magnitude, both trucks would have exhausted its tank within a three and a half minutes tops. Today was fortunate for us that the water source surrounding Bird's Isle was readily available and that was where we went to get our supplementary supply from."
