7 News Belize

Three Year Old Saved From Apartment Fire
posted (January 6, 2012)
This morning, a toddler was pulled from a burning room in the Port Loyola Area of Belize City. It happened on Reggae Street which is right near the sea at around 8:30.

7news was on the scene and Monica Bodden put together the following report:..

Levi Cadle - Rendered Assistance
"I was coming on Caesar Ridge going up into Reggae Street and when I look on the left before I made the turn I saw a lady ran out and she said fire. When I look I saw the blaze of fire coming out, she yelled that her kids are inside."

Monica Bodden reporting
Trapped inside the burning room was little 3 year old Akeem Morgan - who was bravely rescued by a team of men.

Levi Cadle
"I ended stopping the traffic and start to assist with water in buckets, two more men came and we try to control the fire at the front but it was getting out of order at the back, so we heard the kid yelled for help from inside, meanwhile I told the other men to try to get the child from the back meanwhile I try to control the fire at the front. When the men went at the back they said that it was nail-up, so after that they came at the front. The 3 of us went to back meanwhile some men came to the front and break down a window to get the child."

The 3 year old child suffered second degree burns to his hands and face and had to be rushed in an ambulance to the KHMH.

His mother Claudia White and 9 year old sister were also inside the house when the fire started, but escaped unhurt.

Levi Cadle
"When the child was pulled out he wasn't moving or anything, they use CPR on him and he start to breathe again, so they rush him to the hospital."

Jules Vasquez
"Has the child been burned?"

Levi Cadle
"I would say mostly by the heat from the fire but not the fire itself. When he left from here he was already revive."

Levi Cadle was one of the first on the scene who assisted Claudia Whyte and her family. He told us he saw the frightened Whyte shouting for help in front of her house that was on fire; she was yelling that her 3 year old son was still trapped inside.

Jules Vasquez
"Now the circumstances you are telling me seems that the mother left the child in the house after the fire started."

Levi Cadle
"After the fire started she ran out through the gate and she yelled fire and say that her kid is inside , so that's why I ended stop and render assistant because I see that she didn't know what to do. She was running up and down looking lost, the only thing was to try to put out the fire before it got out of control."

It took more than 40 buckets of drain water to help control the fire. There are speculations that the fire may have started from a mattress inside the one bedroom apartment.

But regardless of what started the fire, Cadle says he is thankful that with teamwork, they could have managed to save a child's life.

Levi Cadle
"Personally I used about 40 - 50 buckets of water from the drain, the next men were assisting too but we couldn't get inside, we try to pull out the mattress because it looks like the mattress had most of the fire but it was too hot so we couldn't get to it."

Jules Vasquez
"Sir what's that feeling like when you are trying to put out a fire and you hear a child inside?"

Levi Cadle
"It sounds terrible, I have kids too, I would rather push out the kids and me staying inside to burn up than to run and left the kids inside. It's a horrible feeling to hear someone begging for their life, so I would say it's not a pretty good feeling to hear someone is a fire and begging for help."

And tonight, Claudia Whyte and her 2 children are left homeless. Her friend, who is still terrified from this morning's event, is asking for your help in assisting the Whyte family who has lost everything in the blaze.

Jules Vasquez
"You are friends with Ms. Claudia, what's the condition of Akeem right now?"

Loretta Thurton - Friend of Fire Victim
"Right now my daughter says that he is doing fine, the mother is there with him at the hospital."

Jules Vasquez
"He did receive burns?"

Loretta Thurton
"Yes in his face and his two hands."

Jules Vasquez
"How scary has all of this been for you all knowing that he was very close to being killed in the fire?"

Loretta Thurton
"It got me scared because I have kids too and I wouldn't want that to happen to my kids. He was trapped inside, it got me so scared. No one wouldn't want this to happen to them. They lost everything, they have nothing, so if someone could just please kindly help them in every way they could because she have 3 kids and they have no clothes and no shoes, nothing."

Jules Vasquez
"Everything they lost?"

Loretta Thurton
"Yes."

Jules Vasquez
"Do you have any idea what started the fire?"

Loretta Thurton
"So far I don't know what started the fire."

Jules Vasquez
"Have you spoken to Ms. Claudia?"

Loretta Thurton
"No, she was too scared."

If you want to help the family, they have no phone, but you can call family friend Loretta Thurton at 633-1965.

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