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Daniel Ortiz reporting
This morning at around 8 o'clock, the Fire Department and employees of Ramon's Village were still trying to put out smaller fires, the remnants of the blaze which gutted the resort.

29 cabanas, the resort's office area, Pineapples Restaurant, the Purple Parrot, Ramon's Gift Shop and other related facilities went down in the fire which started at around 8 o'clock last night

Einer Gomez - Manager, Ramon's Village Resort
"My immediate reaction was to keep going and alert the rest of the staff which was the bar and the restaurant and asked them to bring bigger fire extinguishers to help the control the flame."

Orin Smith - Lead Investigator, National Fire Service
"A fire was discovered here at the resort, the fire department responded and brought the fire under control sometime after 10pm that night and final extinguishing hot spots continued well into the early mornings."

Anthony Hunt - Belizean Guest, Ramon's Village Resort
"I was returning from dinner and I walked into the hotel and a fire seemed to break out somewhere in the vicinity of the kitchen, maybe the laundry room - the Southside of the main resort and it just went up really fast."

Simone Micheletti - Italian Guest, Ramon's Village Resort
"Fortunately we left the hotel a couple of minutes before the fire started and we arrived at the restaurant and they told us that the hotel was burning so we ran back and there was nothing anymore. There was a lot of wind, in one minute the fire burned a hundred meter more of the village. After we looked it was impossible to get back our luggage."

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr. - Minister of Tourism
"We had little difficulties with water and the fire engines but worldwide if you look around the job of the fire department is to make sure that they save lives."

Orin Smith
"The fire originated in Cabana 15 which was occupied by two international individuals. The resort is insured with an international insurance body, the name of the insurance - I don't have at this time."

Reporter
"Has it been ascertained that the cause of the fire was incendiary, electrical or otherwise?"

Orin Smith
"Investigation continues into that."

BTB staff have been activated from last night to help the affected guests:

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr
"As we speak there are 22 guests right over at my BTB office over there and we will make sure that they are taken care of and that they are attended to in whatever paper works that need to be done so that they can get back home safely."

Simone Micheletti
"Fortunately the Tourism office of Belize is helping us to get out of the country, I hope we will solve it today or tomorrow."

Laura Esquivel-Frampton - Director Of Tourism
"Most of them, thankfully, were able to save their luggage and their documents. We do have about three persons so far that we have ascertained have lost either luggage and/or documents. So we are currently working with them to make all the connections that they need to make with their consulates and embassies to recover some documents so that they can travel out of the country."

It's a significant loss to the tourism industry in San Pedro. Established in 1982, Ramon's was one of the first major hotels on the island and, today, is one of the most popular resorts on San Pedro:

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr.
"Ramon's is probable close to being the pioneers in Tourism in the island. It was recently refurbished to become top class and probably 4 or 5 star resort. According to my understanding they were doing extremely well these days, this year in particularly - almost 80% occupancy throughout."

Einer Gomez
"In 2009 we made a considerable renovation of a million dollars and that renovation continued back in 2011 and even now we're still doing renovations so the number is quite significant but I don't have that information at hand."

Daniel Ortiz
"Can you tell us a rough estimate - I know you're still going through the logistics of finding out what the cost is but can you give us an idea of the damage that has been done by the fire?"

Einer Gomez
"I'm sorry but I don't have that information and I don't even want to speculate or give you a rough figure because there are so many things that are involved in the cost."

The economic effect of the damage to Resort is visible, but so is the emotional attachment to the Ramon's brand:

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr.
"As the area representative and a local Sanpedrano and having seen Ramon's from the very beginning, I felt very sad to see this happen. But indeed, personally there wasn't much I could have done at that point but to be around and to see that everything was running well."

Laura Esquivel-Frampton
"Our hearts and thoughts go out to all those persons who were affected, all those persons who work at Ramon's and who get jobs - who are not full time but also get jobs from Ramon's. Of course the entire industry here in San Pedro - we know that Ramon's is one of the most established hotels here - certainly from I was a child I remember coming and staying at Ramon's Village so it is a loss for the Tourism Industry."

Simone Micheletti
"There are no words, when you see a place completely destroyed, people and the men working - there are no words."

Einer Gomez
"I've been working here for 20 years, my oldest child hasn't seen me work in any other establishment. Ramon's is my second home, it's my second family and the rest is history."

The management was also grateful to the San Pedro Community for their concern:

Einer Gomez
"The comments and the good wishes and the help that we have received from the entire community is overwhelming and I have to publicly thank them from the bottom of my heart. Ramon's has always given to the community and now I feel the community giving back to us and we really appreciate it."

Anthony Hunt
"There were a lot of people helping out there last night with buckets and I think Ramon's is really going to pull through on this."

According to the Management of Ramon's Village, 29 cabanas were destroyed out of a total of 71. The owner of the Resort, Richard Hendrick, who will fly in to the country tomorrow to assess the damage, released a statement today saying, quote,

"Our hearts are broken that our beloved Ramon's has suffered such damage. Over the past twenty-seven years tens of thousands of guests have visited Ramon's Village and had the time of their lives."