It’s one for the history books, and one for the pocket books.
National Fire Service officials say an investigation is underway into the massive fire that began in the second floor of the warehouse to the rear of the popular Romac’s Store on Albert Street from as early as 9:00 on Wednesday night, March 26.
The cause of the fire is as yet unknown, as well as the monetary value of the damage it caused. But it takes its place alongside the more famous Easter Monday fire of 1975, the Mikado’s fire in 1997, and other famous fires to hit the downtown area.
Fire Chief Henry Baizar told the media at a press conference on Thursday at 11:00 a.m., that the fire station received the first call at 10:15 p.m. on Wednesday, and two trucks were on hand at least five minutes later. In all, five trucks, including a damaged one from Dangriga that was in town for repairs, fought on behalf of the City’s fire service; assistance was provided by the International Airport Fire Station and Ladyville Fire Station, among others.
Before long, the fire spread west along Church Street, jumping across the Lavish Building, which was unaffected, to the concrete building containing the Thrift and Book Center, and then to the wooden homeless shelter managed by the Human Development Department, while also spreading north along Albert Street to the old, three-story Odette’s Fancy Store building, home to a number of stores in its concrete section, and it had residences in the wooden portion.
The shelter’s residents have been relocated to the Golden Haven Rest Home on the Western Highway, Belize City Councilor and City Coordinator for the National Emergency Management Organization, Phillip Willoughby, said Thursday.
According to Fire Chief Baizar and his assistant, Ted Smith, they were helped by the northerly wind, unusual for this time of year, but which prevented the rest of Church Street, Bishop Street and possibly the canal side residences, to the west, from burning down, and James Brodie and Company Ltd. and other close businesses eastward from the fire, from being damaged.
Smith said the firemen were hampered by the height and spacing of the affected buildings, saying this limited their line of attack, but he reiterated that he was “satisfied” with the performance and response of the 9 men fighting the blaze, with limited resources.
In response to media queries, Baizar admitted the service could use another ladder truck to better reach the flames in high-rise buildings. Such a truck, he says, would cost about 2 million US dollars.
Baizar says they got the fire under control by 1:30 a.m. today, but as of this morning at 11:00, firemen were still present in the area, busily spraying water into the smoking ruins of a historic block that is no more. All of Romac’s, Odette’s top floor and CD Plus store, the Thrift and Book Center and the homeless shelter were burnt out.
One of Wednesday night’s victims, Manoj Sharma of Benzer Store in the Odette’s Building, told us he could not even get inside his business yet to assess whether he had anything other than water damage to worry about.
And another, Naim El-Amin, of electronics store CD Plus, next to Sharma’s store, is not even insured against the fire; he was due to send in his papers this week. El-Amin is alleging the Fire Service did not give him a chance to rescue some of the wrecked goods in his store, a charge fire officials denied. One way or another, El-Amin, sources tell us, is out $150,000 as a result of last night’s catastrophe, some of it allegedly due to thievery.
Mickey Craig, co-owner of the Book Center on Church Street, says he lost up to $200,000 worth of books and supplies. The Thrift and Book Center’s warehouse, located behind the store, was also burnt out.
And Craig, El-Amin, Sharma, and other business owners in the area, will not be able to begin to do anything much for a while, according to the Fire Chief and Councilor Willoughby, because the investigation is on-going.
Albert Street was ready for full vehicular traffic by late Thursday, while Church Street remained locked up due to utilities inspection. City buses were using alternative routes along Euphrates Avenue, King Street, Market Square, and West Canal. Neither Councilor Willoughby nor Deputy Mayor Anthony Michael could say immediately what the fire has done to City Hall’s plans to resurface Albert and Regent Streets.
Another immediate concern, according to Willoughby, is what to do with those out of a job. 32 persons employed by Romac’s and 20 by Thrift Center were made unemployed by the blaze, and while Romac’s owners have reassigned eighteen jobs, the remainder will have to look to the Council, who according to Willoughby will do its best to assist them. The Council can be contacted through its usual phone number, 227-2308, and Willoughby personally at 621-9222. It is not known how many others are jobless, or homeless, at this time, but there have been no reported human casualties.
On Friday at 10:45 a.m., however, the fire appeared, briefly, to come back from the dead. Hot embers still smoking in the second floor of the Odette’s Building apparently caught, and small fires restarted.
According to the daughter of the building’s late owner, former Belize City Councilor Yasmin Shoman, the fire service had been informed that the embers were still capable of causing a fire from as early as the end of the main fire early Thursday.
In fact, no less than three calls were made to the headquarters of the service Thursday night, according to Shoman.
But Assistant Fire Chief Ted Smith told us on Friday afternoon on the scene that all emergencies are handled through the number 90, a fact people often forget.
In any case, firemen responded around 11:00 a.m. and within the hour had the blaze under control. From our vantage point near Brodies on Albert Street, no other buildings were seen to be affected.
Smith says fire officials will have a report by next week. They posted a fire truck to the area to keep watch through the weekend.
And on Saturday morning around 11:00, Amandala observed a crane in front of the Romac’s building beginning to knock it down. While we could not get direct comment from its owner, Umesh Mahitani, he had said to other media houses on Friday that the building would be torn down after the insurance companies were through assessing damages.
The building’s upper front portion was gone as of this morning.