When a fire is described as having burnt through a city block – you know that it’s a big one. But the fire in the city late last night didn't just burn down a block, it burnt down The City Block; it is as if it devoured the city's DNA, ripped a hole right through its heart. The blaze went from Ro-Mac's to the Odette's/Shoman building on Albert Street, to the Thrift and Book Centres, and the Social Services Department on Church Street. It raged for three hours from 10 p.m. to about 1 a.m., and smoldered for sometime after that, leaving nothing salvageable in its wake. It all happened just down the street from our studios on Albert Street, and our news team was all up in it from start to finish. Here's the report.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
When we got to the scene on Albert Street at the fire teams had just cut open Ro-Mac’s shutters and were looking inside to find out where the fire was. Smoke was in the air but no one could say where the fire was coming from. Within ten minutes slight bewilderment turned into panicked urgency when flames started
shooting out the top of the Ro-Mac’s building, lighting up the night sky.
The view from Bishop Street showed how massive the blaze was - towering over the Sikaffy building but still contained within the Ro-Mac’s building even as it edged up to the Shoman building – which houses apartments on the second and third floors. The area was still electrified.
The thick fog of black smoke enveloped the area while bursts of flame shot up and coursed west, fueled by a strong easterly wind. The fire was in free burn as Sydney Sikaffy rushed out of his home. The
view from a three story building across the way on King Street shows the fiery combustion from three floors above –looking and sounding like Dante’s inferno made real. And indeed, by 10:40 p.m., 20 minutes after we first got there, this was a raging and a towering inferno - flames jetting out of the Ro-Mac’s roof.
And while it spread against the evening sky in a violent red-orange glow the fire team scrambled to set up a post for what’s called a water monitor on Church Street. When that post was finally in place it seemed hardly enough and keeping it going proved to be another challenge. By this time at 15 minutes to 11:00 the warehouse to the rear of the Ro-Mac’s building was completely engulfed and burning furiously and soon collapsed into the structure beneath it, sending a surge of heat across Bishop Street.
The heat has become so unbearable now, it is hotter than the sun. It is unbearable to stand near to it. This water hose just started working again,
it’s been down for four minutes. There is apparent lack of a strategy to contain this fire. The heat is unbearable at this point and the blaze, obviously it has engulfed the entire Ro-Mac’s Building. The Sikaffy building is next, the Odette’s building in between. It is a massive conflagration and it is very frightening out here because there is apparently no strategy to effectively contain it.
But the firefighters did get their monitor working and were doing their best – but the power of this monitor’s jet stream against the fury of the fire was just too great, and it seemed almost like pointing a water pistol into an inferno – and like us – they just had to basically watch its terrible beauty unfold. The violent intense fire would continue virtually
unchecked for another 45 minutes, devouring the Ro-Mac’s building and catching unto the adjoining Shoman or as its also known, the Odette’s building as thick clouds smothered the night sky.
And while that’s the side view from Bishop street, this is the view from the front at 5 minutes to 11, by which time the ladder truck had arrived and was using its elevated water monitor to shoot down into the fire while another team was cooling the front as a crowd came out to see the city center burn.
And it was a sight; from the Supreme Court, the view was arresting, where the Thrift Center on Church Street could also be seen to be on fire. And another team was there fighting it from that end, but that too was in an almost unstoppable free burn –even as the ladder on the monitor truck lathered water on it - nothing could be done to stop the smoke and fire rushing out of the Ro-Mac’s building.
And one block across on Bishop Street, this view of an apartment window on the second floor of the Shoman building or these glowing cinders, also on the second floor, showed that the fire had penetrated that building. Fueled by whatever was in the Ro-Mac’s warehouse, the fire continued to be fed and while it looked futile, these firemen held the line.
And they were in some sense assisted by nature. As this thick cloud of smoke driven west to smother the night sky showed, the sustained east wind, which was driving the fire, sent it not over to the wooden Sikaffy structure but thankfully here - to the spacious parking lot behind Ro-Mac’s and Odette’s - far from anything else that could catch fire. And while it burned furiously within, it posed no threat without. So while it was out of control and fire particles churned across the night sky - it was under control, contained form further spread by its own location – simply it had run out of things to burn. But still amidst a flurry of fire particles, the firemen, made sure to keep it contained.
We’re at the back of the fire in the Ro-Mac’s parking lot and
it’s sort of like a fire storm out here. These particles, I am not sure if you can see them right now with the light on, but these particles of flames, these small lit cinders almost, that look like fireflies are coming down in the heavy winds and you have to constantly protect yourself from being burned by them. Of course the fire team has protection but it is just blowing around in a whirlwind and it has taken over the whole street. And so we are just here behind the fire, this is exactly one and a half hours after we arrive and it is in what I would call a free burn. They are fighting it at the front and the back but it is so hot and so big in the middle that there is very little they can do.
And while the fire burnt itself in – the man in this nearest building did his best to keep the flames at bay by hosing down his wooden home. As the fire gutted itself out, the team on Bishop Street kept the line up and the cannon going. Luckily for them, by 11:30 pm, one hour after it had started to really rage, the worst of the fire was over it had nothing else to burn, having brunt right through the Ro-Mac’s building, so much so that we could see the inside collapsing
And it would soon inundate the entire lower flat, inside you can see a battered filing cabinet, shriveled and distended by extended exposure to the fire. And while Ro-Mac’s was overcome, the fire ate through the roof of through to the third floor of the Shoman building which was energetically fought by the team and their task was to keep it from getting to the wooden Sikaffy building - which meant climbing the ladder up to the verandah to fight it from inside.
And that’s were airport fire service came in. They arrived just before midnight and stationed their truck on Bishop Street with what’s called a roof torrent pumping 600 gallons a minute of foam into the heart of the fire – the foam floating around and mist in the sodium light creating a starkly surreal glow on Albert Street. But it was no time for a photo opportunity, they had to clamber into the second floor and get to the fire on that level.
On Church Street it was already too late as the fire had demolished the Thrift
Center, the adjoining building, and the next door Department of Social Services.
Micky Craig, Thrift Center/The Book Center
“As you can see this is a composite building. The main frame is reinforced concrete but the roof structure is timber and zinc, corrugated metal, and of course the floor is timber and we sell books, lots of paper of there – paper and shelving.
It’s very distressing but as they say every cloud has a silver lining and with every threat, every disaster, an opportunity arises. But it's just…Jules in my lifetime I’ve gone through many disasters and, personal disasters, and this is one of the worst ones but God is here with us. He is always here.”
Naim El Amin, CD Plus
“Well I’ve had bad stuff happen to me in the past and I’ve always looked forward. Right now I am already going over what I will need to do to start rebuilding from tomorrow.”
Jules Vasquez,
How did you feel when you came out here and you saw it?
Ravik Babani, Cosmetic Center
“I can’t even…I don’t know.”
Jules Vasquez,
About how much inventory do you think you had?
Ravik Babani,
“I had like more than $200,000.”
Zenaida Moya, Mayor of Belize City
“Well clearly I’m not only thinking about the businesses that have been destroyed – the people. It is the owners, I hope all of them are insured, it is of course all the workers. I am estimating it is well over a hundred workers that may very well be out of a job tomorrow, actually today. So I am thinking about that and right in downtown Belize City, it is a devastating experience. I am thinking about the jobs, all the people that will have to come and try to ask us for support during this time.”
Jules Vasquez,
Chief it is 1:32 am, we’ve been out here approximately three hours and ten minutes, what right now is the state of the fire?
Henry Baizar,
“Well the fire is under control, it is still burning but where it is at, it has nowhere to go. It is a hell of a fire, it is a huge fire and the
guys have been out here fighting the fire ever since it started.”
Jules Vasquez,
This was about 10:30 when it really started to rage and the wind was taking it so powerfully across the length of the building, it seemed to me that really nothing could be done to suppress it at that time.
Henry Baizar,
“Well that’s true, once a fire is fully developed and with that height that it has virtually you can use hand lines because hand lines will be almost useless. You got to use monitors and things like that to actually get to the fire.”
Jules Vasquez,
How fortunate are we that there is this huge parking lot in the back which sort of gave it no where else to go other than to just burn out?
Henry Baizar,
“We are very fortunate for that in truth. If houses were there it would have gone all the way to the canal to be honest with you because this is a huge fire and right now, it is pretty under control and it has nowhere to go.”
Jules Vasquez,
Did the fire burn itself out?
Henry Baizar,
“In a sense the fire does burn itself out. In certain areas we stopped it from going to different areas like at Sikaffy where we saw the fire go there and we hurry put up a ladder and we went upstairs and got inside the building and we actually out the fire from inside the building.”
Jules Vasquez,
Do you believe it started more at the top?
Henry Baizar,
“From what the guys said to me so far, because they went into the building, they went from the front and the back, and there was no fire and all of a sudden the fire was upstairs.”
Jules Vasquez,
How many more hours are left in this fight then?
Henry Baizar,
“Probably another three hours or so.”
And indeed, while it raged and when it was all done, the flag was still there, and with it the hope that with the help and support of the Belizean community, these businesses can rebuild.
And that rebuilding started this morning. Keith Swift spent the day out at the fire scene, and later on, we'll have his report on the aftermath of the fire. As far as damages, there is no current estimate on the dollar figure, but we can assure you, it is in the many millions of dollars. As for jobs lost, immediately we can say that figure is close to a hundred. Keith Swift will have more on that also in his story of the aftermath and that’s coming up at the end of the newscast.
