BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Dec. 22, 2016–The number of reports of house fires, including tragic reports of fatal fires, has been higher so far this year than reports for the past two years, when annual figures are compared.
According to data from the National Fire Service, one hundred and eighty-two homes were burnt this year, an increase of 49 homes over 2015 with 8 more days left in 2016. Last year, there was a decrease in house fires, with the number of fires down from one hundred and sixty in 2014 to one hundred and thirty- three in 2015.
The first fire-related death the media recorded for this year occurred at the start of October when a house fire erupted on Aloe Vera Street killing Aaron Gabourel, 11, in the process. Weeks later, his cousins, Ian Sambula, 4, and Empress Hamilton, 9, succumbed to injuries received in that fire while receiving treatment at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Galveston, Texas.
The family had told our newspaper that an arsonist stormed their home and doused it with gasoline and lit it ablaze. According to Smith, that incident has been classified as an act of arson. However, to this date no one has been charged.
Smith told our newspaper that there have been a lot of conflicting accounts from relatives who say that they were present at the time of the incident.
In a subsequent fire which occurred at the end of that same month, another tragedy was recorded on the south side of Belize City in which two-year-old baby Kaylee Alvarez lost her life.
She ran to hide in her bathroom as a fire consumed her house in the Conch Shell Bay area of Belize City. Today, Belize City station manager, Orin Smith, told our newspaper that the cause of that fire has still not been determined.
He revealed that used match sticks had been found in the house, but they have not been linked to the fire. He also revealed that the house did not have a legitimate electrical connection and was receiving electricity through two separate feeder wires.
While the loss of those lives was heart-wrenching, so was the San Pedro inferno which left 88 persons homeless in June. To date, there is no official tally of all the persons rendered homeless by this year’s fires.
Another devastating fire, this one more recent, gutted the iconic 89-year-old Chateau Caribbean Hotel in Belize City. According to Smith, the burning of Chateau was caused by an LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) leak or a leaking gas tank.
Fires caused by similar gas leaks have recorded a slight increase from 21 in 2015 to 24 in 2016.
Data from the Fire Department also revealed an increase in bush fires, listed at 1,219 in 2016, up from 981 in 2015. There were, by comparison, 985 bush fires reported in 2014.
Vehicle fires also saw an increase with 95 reported up to November 30, 2016, which is almost double the 53 reported for 2015.
No one could forget that the Deputy Prime Minister himself, Patrick Faber, was a victim of this category of fire when an arsonist caught on camera gained illegal access to his premises and set ablaze the SUV which he had just acquired to replace the government-issued SUV which someone had driven into the sea.
Fires originating from electrical poles were also more frequent this year than they were in the previous two years, with 42 recorded this year, representing an increase of 12 over the 30 electrical pole fires recorded in 2015. Last year also saw an increase from the 29 reported in 2014.
These fires have normally only resulted in the burning of the poles, but that was not the case almost a week ago when it quickly spread from a pole to a home, which it destroyed on Reggae Street in Belize City.
There are many more areas where a trending increase in fires was observed. However, according to Smith, he hopes to prevent those increases by engaging in more education campaigns for the New Year.