BELIZE CITY, Mon. Oct. 28, 2019– At about 4:30 Saturday evening, two sisters who were walking up wooden stairs to go to the upper flat of their 2-flat, timber family house on Church Street, fell to the ground from the home’s verandah, elevated about 8 feet above the ground, because a rotted portion of the flooring on the verandah broke.

Virginia Smith, 60, of Fern Lane, and Judith Brooks, 53, of Zericote Street, were rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital by ambulance.

Brooks was unconscious and was scheduled to undergo an X-ray to determine the extent of her injuries, while Smith complained of pain in her right side and right arm.

On our visit to the house, we saw the verandah flooring on the ground and observed that the frame of the verandah is in need of repair.

Kent Brooks, a family member, told us that the two women have been treated and released from the hospital, and that they did not suffer serious injuries. Brooks said that the verandah was recently repaired about 5 years ago, but became rotted.