BELIZE CITY, Mon. Mar. 14, 2022– A little after midnight on Friday, March 11, a 20-by-30-foot white cement bungalow home on Jasmine Street was damaged by fire, leaving reportedly five persons without a home.

Lincoln Vaughn, 67, was sleeping in his room when he was awakened by the flames that were inside of the home. Vaughn attempted to extinguish the flames, and during that attempt was burnt on various parts of his body, including his head, back, ears, and hands. He was able to exit the building, however, before receiving further injuries.

Unconfirmed reports have indicated that five persons resided at the home: Vaughn, an elderly woman, and about two or three kids who were in the building at the time of the fire.
The Officer in Charge at the National Fire Service for the Belize District, Kenneth Mortis, has said that, although the cause of the fire is yet to be determined, he believes an electrical malfunction could have started the fire.

“We cannot directly say what caused the fire. The nature of this particular fire still [has] us a bit stumped, so to speak. We understand that the building did have electricity, contrary to the previous information received. We are of the opinion that fire could have started as a result of an electrical flaw; the room itself poses as a fire load, and then the fire spread from there,” he noted.

Although the National Fire Service is still investigating the cause of the fire, arson hasn’t been ruled out yet. Mortis pointed out, however, that it would be difficult to determine why an individual would want to commit a malicious act towards an elderly man.

“The perplexing part of this is, you know, you’re looking at a 67-year-old; he should’ve been asleep, and we’re trying to figure out if this fire was a malicious act, what would’ve been the motive in trying to destroy this building and almost take the life of Mr. Vaughn. We are thankful that he’s up and on the way to recovery; however, that would be the final part of the puzzle that we need to put the pieces together in terms of who would want to start the fire and why,” Mortis said.

After exiting from the burning structure, Vaughn was reportedly beaten by his neighbors, and suffered a broken nose as a result of that beating.

“We know that he sustained damage to the nose. I think he broke his nose, and he had swelling to his face. Again, it’s a very complicated situation, because what harm or what threat could a sixty-seven-year-old individual hold to the community? I was made to understand he’s well known by the neighbors in the Jasmine Street area. For whatever reason, these characters may have inflicted bodily harm on him. That is something we’re trying to determine … we spent almost a majority of Saturday morning trying to gather as much information as we possibly can. However, it’s not something that anybody wants to come out and say, ‘well, this is what we know’. These are the types of situation that leave us in a limbo, and we just have to try to put the pieces together and see what we can come up with. Because, at the end of the day, we still need to figure out the reason why and the motive behind the beating, so those are the two factors that are up in the air that we cannot answer,” Mortis said.

Vaughn was transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for his injuries and was released sometime on Sunday.

The estimated cost of the damages to the home in which he lived is yet to be determined.