7 News Belize

Fire Guts Home, Landlord Points Fingers
posted (December 22, 2014)
Tonight a family is homeless and their landlord is pointing fingers -after his 3 bedroom concrete bungalow house was destroyed by fire. It happened on Saturday evening in the Michel Estate area on Heron Street. Carlos Diaz, who is the home owner received the call from his tenant at around 4 Saturday evening informing him that his house was on fire. And while that is bad enough news, Diaz believes that it was arson :...

Carlos Diaz, Home Owner
"I came here Sunday morning and this is what I met. Now, I look at what is here and I can only conclude that my house was deliberately set on fire. This is a case of arson and I can say that because all the windows are metal windows and all the windows are burnt out, but there is a plywood window that suffered no burns. There are lots of papers around the place, but the windows are burnt out. So I can only conclude that these things were deliberately set on fire as far as I am concern. But so far I haven't gone to the police because you cannot get to the police and make an accusation against somebody without the proper information and I don't want to end up myself being in problem or being sued for saying the wrong thing. I can say that I believe it was burnt down, but until the fire chief say this is arson, I can't say so."

Orin Smith, Station Officer, National Fire Service
"On Saturday 20th December, 2014 at 4:19pm the National Fire Service receive report of a structural fire at #280 Heron Street, Ladyville, Belize District. On arrival on the scene, one concrete bungalow residential structure was seen engulfed in flames. The fire was quickly brought under control and extinguished. Investigation reveals that the fire originated in the northwest bedroom of that structure. The fire was classified as accidental and was the result of a working iron left unattended on a bed."

No one was at home at the time of the fire. We were told neither the house nor the items inside were insured. The value of the house is approximately one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

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