So, the cause was electrical - and from one faulty cooler, the large fire tore through the heart of Caye Caulker and burned down two popular establishments. Both Barrier Reef Sports Bar and Grill and La Cubana were completely destroyed in the blaze.
Mortis gave us an overview of how it unfolded.
Kenneth Mortis, Station Officer, National Fire Service
"Unfortunately Friday at approximately 8:22 the Caye Caulker fire department found themselves in a raging inferno, which left two heavily sized establishments gutted and destroyed by a fire. Mainly sports bar liquor establishment and Cubana Restaurant, both of these establishments measured approximately 90 by 50 ft and 90 by 60 ft respectively. They were of Wooden mix construction. This fire posed some challenges for us over at Caye Caulker for the main reason being that developing areas like Caye Caulker since I am talking about Caye Caulker, what developing areas does it hampers the accessibility to water supply by the fire department. What we once knew as an available water head over time an establishment is being built and it cuts off the water supply for us. Nevertheless. We must continue the job that we are paid and trained to do, which is fire fighting. We managed to draft water some 1300 feet away from the location while we were fortunate enough that the civilians thought they might not be happy based on the outcome but they played a crucial role in assisting the fire department with the bucket brigade that combined with our fire fighting effort to limit the disaster to two structures. It was a wet morning it was raining that morning if you look at what was damaged versus what remained the close proximity between some of these buildings is still an amazing effort to see that while we lost two structures we managed to save quite a number of others surrounding that barely had any scorches or heat damage so to speak."
And while the blaze was mostly contained - its spread was facilitated by the absence of zoning regulations on the island. Mortis discussed this along with the fact that only one of the buildings was insured:
Kenneth Mortis, Station Officer, National Fire Service
"We learnt that Cubana restaurant, the one that was insured with RF&G, suffered a loss in contents of 700-70k and that's just an approximate figure provided to us by the owner. The sports bar was owned by Mr Clifford Williams unfortunately that building was not insured he suffered a massive loss as well again. Fortunately for owners, residents and the fire department we had no loss or injury to lives so these fires are something that we need to take a step back and look at exactly the rapid growth of which Caye Caulker is facing in terms of the challenges being faced as a result of these constructions. I cannot overemphasize the importance to always have the fire department actively involved when 4 developments regardless if it's main land you know let us see where we are and where we are going and I'm hoping that the observation of this and now this verbally will be heard or can be heard by the powers that be and we can address this in a more formidable way."
