BELIZE CITY, Mon. Mar. 28, 2022– At around 1:45 a.m. on March 27, it was reported that the building housing the Rainbow Restaurant on the south end of Hopkins Village was on fire. Firefighters went to the scene, and after they had extinguished the blaze, the motionless body of a man identified as Jing Deng Tan, the proprietor of the establishment, was found inside the structure. Police believe that the fire started inside a room in his apartment, located in a residential section of the premises.

The Police Department’s Communications Director, ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, told reporters that one of the tenants in the building was awakened by the smell of smoke and called the authorities after being unsuccessful in reaching Tan, the landlord of the apartment complex. According to reports, Tan lived alone in his apartment, which, as previously mentioned, is believed by National Fire Service investigators to be the location where the fire started.

Tan’s body has since been transported to the Southern Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, and a postmortem examination of his remains will soon be conducted. Police have noted that although he was found motionless, they did not observe any burn or other injury on his body.