Fire Department personnel from the city arrived on the island when we did this morning and have been questioning witnesses. But as you heard a short while ago, residents don’t want the Fire Department to investigate the cause of the fire. They say they want answers as to why the Fire Department took long to respond and why the water pump wasn’t functioning. Those are questions we put to Kenneth Mortis late this evening. For starters he says the Fire Department received the 2:23 am – and not at 1 as some residents claim.
Kenneth Mortis, Training Supervisor- National Fire Service
“The Caye Caulker Fire Department actually received the call at 2:23 this morning. It only took us a matter of minutes before we responded and within ten to fifteen minutes on the scene we started battling the blaze.”
Keith Swift,
“Was the pump working?”
Kenneth Mortis,
“Initially the pump was working. What happened was that we use what we call a portable pump. The fire fighter out there, he set up the pump and the hose lines and started fighting the fire. The contributing factor for the malfunction of the pump was the weather. The rain, it wet the electrical components of the pump, such as the spark plug and the distributor. Once that got wet then the pump shut down and it took us a while.”
Keith Swift,
“How long is a while?”
Kenneth Mortis,
“It took us a while Keith. Let’s just say it took us a while.”
Keith Swift,
“Half hour, an hour?”
Kenneth Mortis,
“It took the crew at least 45 minutes before the pump started again.”
Keith Swift,
“They are saying that the fire fighters didn’t respond earlier because they were at the end of the island drinking at another fireman’s house.”
Kenneth Mortis,
“The island as of last night thru to the this morning had one fire fighter. That particular fire fighter lives almost a mile away from the station. It is the norm that when such occurs, that fire fighter takes the fire truck to his residence. So to rebut what the villagers are saying that a social gathering was taking place where drinking was concerned, that was not practical. It was him alone and he alone had the entire island on his shoulder.”
Keith Swift,
45 minutes, the lag, is that what went wrong? We had 5 buildings destroyed.”
Kenneth Mortis,
“We had three, we had the cabana where the fire started from and two cabanas that were two storey and a cement structure that was for Mr. Haywood. It wasn’t completely occupied but it was standing. So officially we had four buildings totally destroyed today.”
Keith Swift,
“They say they’ve lost confidence in the firemen out there, can you say anything to them to convince them otherwise?”
Kenneth Mortis,
“In most districts, not only Caye Caulker, in most districts we have one fireman working on an eight hour shift. It is a tedious task for one single fireman to expeditiously extinguish a flame of such a magnitude. I wouldn’t want to encourage the villagers to lose confidence in our people. As I said before, we are there to save them.”
Caye Caulker has a fire department with two fighters attached.
