There was a sudden death in Belize City over the weekend when 34-year-old Fredrick Smith was electrocuted in a mishap with some illegal wiring near his yard on Brown Street Ext.
It happened at about 9:00 pm on Sunday night when Smith departed his home, likely on his way to his neighbor's. We headed to the scene today and another neighbor, who chose to remain off-camera, told us how frightened they were to find his body in the morning:
Voice of Neighbor
"I'm not really sure what went on. I got up because I heard the neighbor screaming and then she said that Fredrick was down there dead, so I came out of my house and I didn't really come all the way here to see the body but I just saw that his feet were on the ground but we had, she said that the night before her lights were coming on and off so she said that was probably when it happened but she says she never did come out to see what happened because she said it started to rain right after that happened it started to rain. So, I'm not sure, what I can say is that he must have been drunk and he was walking out through here and he dropped down there on the wire that's all I can say but I'm not sure what happened."
Cherisse Halsall:
"And then the wires electrocuted him?"
Voice of Neighbor
"All I know is that they found him down there and ants were already on him."
Cherisse Halsall:
"So, in your estimation how long was he down there?"
Voice of Neighbor
"Like from 8'o'clock at night, yeah. Like around *;00 o'clock 8 or 9 the night."
Cherisse Halsall:
"Who was Fredrick as a neighbor, what kind of person was he?"
Voice of Neighbor
"Well, he was always like you knew when he was around because he would always take his little drink and he would always play music and he and the neighbor from right over so they were close friends and they would always, every day they, every night those two talk on the verandah, they talk to each other. So, he will miss him a lot because that was his good friend."
And in light of this tragedy, BEL is reminding residents about their Connecting Homes Improving Lives Programme. It seeks to provide a safe wiring infrastructure to avoid the type of illegal connection that caused Fredrick Smith's death.
The CHIL program - as it is called - assists families, who may not be able to afford the basic infrastructure needed for a safe connection to BEL's power supply. It includes wiring of one room, installation of a panel box, wiring up to the service entrance, and installation of energy efficient light bulbs, an outlet and light switches.
