The Belize Red Cross Society, local arm of the International Society of Red Cross and Red Crescent, is well-known for its work in mitigating the plight of victims of disaster, both natural and manmade.
But early this morning, an individual or unknown individuals managed to cause a disaster that put the Red Cross, used to aiding others in recovery, in an unfamiliar position – by visiting havoc on their own turf.
The Red Cross’ historic Headquarters Building at #1 Gabourel Lane, a two-storey wooden and concrete structure said to be about a century old, was around 3:30 this morning found in flames, in what the National Fire Service told Amandala this afternoon was “a malicious act.”
According to Director General of the Belize Red Cross, Lily Bowman, she was called around that time by a woman identifying herself as being with the Police Department and told that the Headquarters Building, said to have been donated to the Society by billionaire businessman Robert S. Turton, was on fire.
After calling the organization’s financial and administrative officer Marilyn Arnold and Society President Tracy Panton, she went to the scene and found three fire tenders belonging to the Fire Service and police at work fighting the fire, and observed “heavy smoke” coming from the upper floor of the building.
She raced upstairs with the keys to the building, but firefighters had already gained forcible entry through a window on the front verandah facing Gabourel Lane and were fighting the fire from inside. Within minutes the blaze was under control.
Operations officer for the Fire Service, Michael Middleton, says that the Fire Service was called by the Police at around 3:30 and responded with 2 tenders within 2 minutes, a third being sent out and arriving shortly thereafter. They broke the lock on the entrance door on the ground floor and took down the burglar bars on the window facing the verandah to get in at the flames and quickly brought the fire under control. The fire concentrated on the eastern side of the building but had spread north to offices in the rear of the building. .
Bowman told us that she was the last person to leave the building on Wednesday night, around 6:45. She remembers turning on the alarm system before leaving. There is no private security guarding the building, which also hosts administrative offices for the Belize Council for the Visually Impaired (BCVI).
The sight of the destruction visited on their premises this morning brought most staff members to tears, Bowman said, and while the building and the equipment inside are insured with RF&G Insurance, meaning they may get some compensation, the larger question remains: Who did this, and why?
Middleton told us that investigators for the Fire Service and Scenes of Crime technicians for the Police Department found, on the low zinc roof next to the torched building, a large screwdriver, some rags and a can of fluid which he says appears to be “charcoal lighter fluid, or some other accelerant.”
Middleton surmises that the attacker(s) sprayed the fluid on the rags, pushed them into the building through the east-side window, and then set the fire. Checks made by investigators indicate that that window had a metal louver missing, and it is thought that it was pried off using the screwdriver. All of the recovered items have been taken as evidence by the police.
Fire Service investigators have taken samples from the scene, which will be sent to a laboratory in Miami, Florida, U.S.A. for analysis to determine what, if any, accelerant was used to set the fire.
For now, according to Middleton, the Fire Service strongly believes that “this was a malicious act; this person, or persons, since we’re not sure if it’s one or more than one, intended to set this building on fire. However, arson is a crime and it has to be proven; the police have to investigate…so we can’t say it’s definitely arson as yet.”
He told us that the firefighters’ quick response prevented even more damage.
But what damage there is, is staggering. We spoke to Bowman in her office this morning, the only portion of the building completely spared by the flames. She estimated a loss of six desktop computers, seven laptop computers, photocopiers, standing fans, the base radio used by the Society for emergency communication during disaster emergencies; and several filing cabinets loaded with important records and documents.
Worse, some 25 containers full of relief supplies to have been given out to victims of October’s Hurricane Richard were also badly damaged. The majority of the donated relief supplies – some only just moved yesterday – are in a warehouse located on the grounds of the Sisters of Mercy Convent and St. Catherine Academy on Eyre and Hutson Streets, around the corner, and according to Bowman, they have been given permission to open temporary office space there as soon as possible.
Downstairs, the BCVI offices sustained water damage, according to some workers there with whom we spoke. They told us that some of their computers got wet, but it is not clear as yet if they are working because there is no electricity in the entire building, and some important files were damaged and lost. The Red Cross’ kitchen and conference room in the back portion of the building also sustained water damage, but nothing serious.
Bowman says that while their operations are for the moment set back, it is time for what she calls “the strength of humanity” to manifest itself. “Our advances have been deterred, but we will not retreat,” she told us this morning. “The work will continue, with Richard relief, with the disaster preparedness training in the Belize River Valley and the Cayo District…our mission is to alleviate suffering wherever it is found by mobilizing the power of humanity; we are looking to stay together. The Red Cross has helped many, now it needs help. We must have togetherism.”
The Society employs some 15 staff members, six full-time and the others for various projects, and has about 500 active volunteers nationwide. It has been established in Belize for over 100 years, but only under its current name since 1983.
Amandala has been reliably informed by official sources that the organization had been threatened over what some feel has been a slow response in the distribution of relief, but Bowman told us this afternoon that they do not believe these threats had anything to do with today’s tragedy.
Other information to us is that an executive board meeting was scheduled for today, but officials from the organization tell us that it was not to discuss unconfirmed allegations of some trouble within the Society, but a regularly scheduled meeting on general matters concerning the work of the Red Cross.