BELIZE CITY, Wed. Apr. 27, 2022 — An abandoned building on Cran Street in Belize City which was said to be frequented by drug users and the homeless was destroyed by a fire on Tuesday night. The National Fire Service reported that they got the distress call around 9:30 p.m., and when they arrived on the scene a raging fire fueled by strong winds presented some challenges to firefighters. The building was set to be demolished, according to Station Supervisor, Kenneth Mortis, who identified the owner of the property as Delia Williams, a Belizean living in America.

“We extinguished that fire not before facing some of the minor challenges of the nature and the wind and what not. That fire had us shifting our tactics; the wind played a little role and almost had us a bit bamboozled; however, we were successful. We learned that the building had been abandoned for some time. The owner, one Ms. Delia Williams who resides in the U.S., had left the building, and we gathered that when she did return to Belize it would have been for demolishing and the construction of a new establishment on the property,” Mortis reported.

The building was reportedly vacant for almost 5 years, and there was no electrical connection in the structure, which led neighbors to believe that the fire was set by a group of persons who use the building for illicit activities. Members of the National Fire Service, while acknowledging that they’ve received reports of such activities, including the smoking of crack, have said that they are unable to confirm definitively if those persons contributed to the fire.

“That is a possibility, however; if that is a concrete factor towards the cause of the fire, then the possibility to determine that would be next to slim. [Whatever] means or whatever source they used to acquire heat in that building, that’s up for grabs. We’ve established that the building wasn’t furnished; as we rightly mentioned it was abandoned. We learned that the building had no electricity. So your guess is as good as mine indeed. Did these alleged street peddlers use that building? I’m gonna say street peddlers for lack of a better word. Were they the actual illegal occupants of that building? Did they contribute to the cause of that fire? Unfortunately, those questions will not be answered, as we tried our best to at least have an identifiable person to, well he was occupying this building, or she was occupying this building,” Mortis said.

Neighbors say the quick response by firefighters, with the assistance of members of the community, helped to avert what could have been greater losses. Houses adjacent to the intense fire had also caught fire, which led to partial heat damage to a few neighboring homes and damage to a nearby vehicle.

“That particular structure that sits on the eastern portion of the building received fire damage to the eaves and fascia board. There was a structure that sits across the street. That tells you that the heat was so intense last night that that building, fortunately, only suffered a loss to the plastic gutters. Unfortunately, the vehicle, which was an 01 Isuzu Rodeo, suffered more heat damage to various parts of the front of the vehicle not limited to — but including the windshield, the two rearview mirrors, the bumper, and the 2 indicator lights, all located at the front. We noticed that the eastern side of the building, which housed the San Cas warehouse suffered heat [damage] at the top of the building, where the zinc is located. We noticed that a few of the cameras at the front were damaged by the heat as well,” explained Mortis to local media.

It has additionally been reported that some of BEL’s power lines in the area were damaged by the fire, and an assessment was ongoing to determine the extent of any damage that was possibly caused to cables and power lines belonging to local cable companies and DIGI.