Adding to his legal trouble which began in January when he was brought before the court on a charge of handling stolen goods, youth worker Raymond “Footie” Gongora, 40, lost his home in mysterious circumstances Wednesday morning.
Gongora spoke with our newspaper by telephone Wednesday evening. He told us that he had moved out of the community after being charged in January with handling stolen goods and appearing in court (that case is scheduled for hearing on March 13) along with two teenagers, one a minor and his nephew, who had been accused of burglary.
According to Gongora, his daughter, a Standard Six student, had been threatened that the house would burn down in retaliation for her father’s alleged activities. Gongora says he never took the threat seriously – until he got the news around noon Wednesday.
Just an hour prior, he had appointed a watchman to guard the house, and so he left. But when he returned, he saw fire spewing from the back of the residence, apparently coming from his daughter’s bedroom.
Gongora claims that someone threw an incendiary device into the house through the glass back window. The resultant fire raced through the house and razed it to the ground, taking many of Gongora’s possessions. No one was home at the time, as the entire family had moved to Belize City.
Naturally, Gongora believes that the fire was deliberate and a case of arson. If so, it continues a worrying series of fire and arson-related incidents in Belize City and its environs that started last week on Mex Avenue and continued through the week, leading up to today. (Those stories are covered elsewhere in this issue.)
Amandala broke the story of the brewing trouble in the Fresh Pond community of Burrell Boom Village last October. Area residents had complained that a series of burglaries and vandalism, augmented by threats and harassment, had them worried – and charged that it was all Gongora’s work, a charge he continues to deny.
The National Fire Service continues to investigate, and station supervisor Kenneth Mortis says arson is being looked at “very seriously.”