Tonight, Belize City resident Raymond Pitterson is mourning the tragic loss of his 83-year-old mother Elita Elswith Coleman.
It's nothing that Raymond could have ever imagined on Saturday night when, as was his routine, he locked his mother's front door before heading home himself. He couldn't have known then that by 12:20 am, the back door, like much of the home, would be engulfed in flames - and his mom would have no way to escape.
And this afternoon when we met up with him in the rubble of the now destroyed greenhouse, he explained the terrible circumstances that converged to cause his mother's death. Cherisse Halsall reports.
These are the burglar bars that 83 year old Elita Coleman clung to as she was suffocated by smoke and by some accounts burned alive.
And this afternoon as her son Raymond sifted through the rubble all he could do was lament the loss of a mother who in the end he was unable to protect from terrible tragedy.
Raymond Pitterson, Son of the deceased
"The house done burn up inside, my mom already fell and die. The young lady said that my mom was crying for help by the window. Nobody came to help her until the fire took the room she was in and burn off all the hair from her head and she was holding on the window and she fell backward and that was it."
Police say that by the time they got there there was very little that officers could do to help Coleman because they would never have been able to get to her
Raymond Pitterson, Son of the deceased
"As they kicked in the door they saw the smoke in the kitchen, so what they did they said that was not their job. They told my mom that it was not their job and she has to wait until the fire truck came. They stood by the veranda and wait for the fire truck to come. The 2-fire truck came without water. They came empty. How will they come to put out a fire without any water? That is what I want to know."
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Officer
"The house was properly burglar barred and that may have prevented their entry, or them gaining entry. The fire department arrived on the scene, they managed to extinguish the fire, but it was too late for Ms Elita who perished as a result of that fire, noh."
"Even the timeliness of the information that was sent to me, you can see that they were trying to get in there to try and save Ms Elita's life. The photos that were sent to me form that fire scene (shakes head)….it's said just to read the report."
That's because the house consisted of two long corridors, one that led from the main entrance to the back of the house and another that led from the back of the house to Coleman's bedroom. It means that when the officers kicked in the door they were faced with what would have seemed like a wall of fire.
Incredibly sad and downright traumatizing for Coleman's neighbour Amber Grenardo - who disagrees with the police narrative.
Amber Grenardo, Eye Witness
"Through the window, the lady was shaking the bars, the burglar bases, she said help me, she said she's 83 and she said help me, I don't want to die like this, help me, help me, help me, help me."
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Officer
"Our officers on the scene, held a conversation with Ms Elita."
Reporter
"Ok, so you guys heard her trapped inside."
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Officer
"Yes, ahm we had two officers that arrived on the scene and actually saw her in that house. I know it's very traumatic for them. Like I said, it's a very sad day for us. But I am certain that they made every effort that they could have to try to get into that house."
Amber Grenardo, Eye Witness
"I'm not saying that he should have gone into the fire and died because he wouldn't have died. If he had held his breath for three minutes, gotten that lady and come back out he would have felt like a hero, he would have been Belize's hero."
"When they did bring out the lady, before they brought out the lady, the lady's son asked if his mom was still in there? The policeman looked at him and said where were you? You should have gotten her out, heartless, no compassion. I mean mean, If I could have strangled that man."
"This lady had loved ones, this lady had family, this lady had friends who really love her and I know, I know they would have helped that lady. If I only had her son's number, her son would have helped her, mean, to see that lady die just like."
But while Grenardo paints a horrifying picture of Grenardo's last moments, station supervisor, Kenneth Mortis claims that his investigation contradicts that account.
Cherisse Halsall:
"Sir, you say that the elderly woman could have perished due to smoke inhalation."
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor
"She wasn't burnt alive. I'm not going to make it seem like we are the medics in that field. The fire started in the kitchen; it created an excessive amount of heat. That structure was fully closed. The smoke travelled down the corridor and entered into her room where she was trapped. She was trapped before she even came out of the room. Unfortunately, after she succumb, based on smoke inhalation, then that was when she received after death burns. She wasn't burnt alive as the neighbour may want to put out there. It is a tragedy and like I said I am no medic, but that was what our investigation has concluded. We learnt that neighbours on the scene probably tried to assist to make an entry, but they themselves couldn't do anything as the building was already extremely hot and the fire was outrageous that they couldn't make an attempt to successfully assist in trying to extinguish this fire while we were there."
And what about the claim that the firetruck arrived without a drop of water? That's one that Mortis completely struck down.
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor
"As far as the truck coming to a fire scene without water, that is something that I will probably hear until next fifteen generations to come. This is an after midnight fire. The truck came from nowhere but the fire station. Again, I can only try to over emphasize that these truck doesn't carry an indefinite amount of water. Combine with both trucks, you're looking at approximately 2,000 gallons of water and then it goes down with a lot of physics whereby you do friction loss and so forth. What looks like 2,000 gallons of water to the naked eye it might not seem enough, but to us the trained professionals we know how to take that 2,000 gallons of water and maximize it to a capacity to about 7-10 minutes before we exhaust the tank. If I send a fly by night fireman on that hose tom operate that truck, that 2,000 gallons of water will last 2 minutes. Everybody wants to see volume. We are trained to effectively combat these blaze with the limited supplies and resources we have until we can break off and allocate supplementary water supply."
But whatever the cause, the ultimate result is an unspeakable loss for Coleman's family. That loss coupled with the knowledge that she likely suffered toward the end makes this all the more devastating for her sons.
Raymond Pitterson. Son of the deceased
"My mom was a nice person, my mom helped anybody. She is loving, she helps anybody. If you need something, she will give you. It doesn't matter if she only have a little bit. I tell her not to do that, you are 83 years old. You don't have work and you can't be giving away your money like that. So when anybody comes and to that to my mother, I always try to put in a few words, but she still does it. She is loving and caring. So it hurts bad, it hurts me."
Cherisse Halsall:
"If you could sir just speak to the anger of this image of your mother in that window with law enforcement right there looking on. How angry does that make you?"
Raymond Pitterson. Son of the deceased
"I don't know how to say the word. All I could say they have to try... I don't know how to put it, but they are evil, because that is not right what happened. They should have at least seek some help. I would never believe this is the way I would lose my mother. This hurt very bad. It hurt me that when I went home back, I couldn't sleep the whole night. I got up and I came and I went inside and I say let me see how inside of this house is, because I don't like what happened and when I look, the whole inside of the house burnt up. Everything burned and that was sad. And I blame the fire department and I blame the police too. Both of them I blamed. Both of them have the fault. So I think something has to be done."
And when it comes to the electrical issues Pitterson doesn't agree with the fire department's assessment of the washing machine as the cause of the fire.
He believes that the flames are the result of a problem that he had warned his mother's landlord about.
According to Pitterson those flames would have started from the house's circuit box which he says quote: "must have had too much dirt and kicked off a flame." End quote.
