Now that the blaze has been put out and the smoke has settled â€" tonight the reality is hitting those 28 residents. They have to rebuild their lives from scratch. That process will take a while so for now, all they can do, is make the best out of CEMO’s care packages. This evening at City Hall, CEMO personnel handed over mattresses and a number of other items to the fire victims, who need all the help they can get.
Hon. Edmund Castro - NEMO Minister
"In this case on Glenn Street it was 3 building that was totally destroyed and consist of 8 families and a total of 28 persons affected so we teamed up with NEMO, normally would have a package as it relates to fire victims where we provide table top stove mattresses and sheets and that sort of thing. So standard basic NEMO package that we provide for each family, then we have the human services which will kick in and see how best they can assist some of the families in terms of perhaps help them with somewhere to go for a short period of time until they could get back on their feet.â€
Phillip Willoughby - City Councillor, Disaster Mgmt.
"They are extremely hopeful, they recognize that the fire has happened to them. I don’t if it has sunken yet because you know when you are looking for your pillow and your bed tonight its not going to be your home that you will be walking in to, so that will set in I guess a little bit later on. That will take its toll but we hope that we can mitigate against that and return them to some state of normalcy."
Officers from the Human Development Services are working closely with these victims to assist them. Depending on need and individual cases â€"these victims may be assisted with rent for up to 3 months.
Now, on another angle of the story â€" Councillor Willoughby used this opportunity to highlight the issue of dilapidated buildings which ties into this tragedy.
Phillip Willoughby - City Councillor, Disaster Mgmt.
"The residence of Belize City take the time out to understand sometime ago when the city made a proactive approach to deal with these abandon and derailment buildings. Its becoming a perennial problem if you notice where these fires originate from. These abandon and derailment buildings. So ill take this opportunity to say lets start this process, it doesn’t have to be as a result of a hurricane or a tsunami. You see how because of this fire now 28 people are now homeless because of an abandon and derailment building. Lets deal with these abandon and [] building. Lets take them down."
Tonight, the majority of the individuals whose homes were destroyed are staying in dorms at the MCC facility. Two families are with relatives. This is until a medium term arrangement can be put in place by Human Services Department.
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