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There was a small house fire in the Lake Independence area this morning. Nobody was hurt, and the fire was contained to one building. End of story, right? Not quite, because those cold facts do no justice to the enormous loss to one family, and neither do they tell the story of the inadequate response from Belize’s emergency numbers. I found out more this morning.

Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
Except for these family pictures and a few pieces of clothing, everything that Terrence Pott and his family of six owned was completely destroyed by fire that engulfed their two bedroom wooden house situated at 8021 Gile Street in the Lake Independence Area. Just before eight this morning neighbours saw smoke and then a blaze.

Romie Anthony, Neighbour
“From smoke to fire, took no time at all because everybody noticed the smoke, it was light smoke and everybody started calling and thing and the next thing fire. The house was on fire.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
So it was left up to the neighbor’s to try to out this fire?

Romie Anthony,
“We couldn’t do nothing, there is no water really close. The river is there yes but the access.”

The Pott family had just left home for work when everything they worked so hard for was sent up in smoke.

Ted Smith, Acting Fire Chief
“A fire would not take too long to sweep through a compactly built wooden structure like that.”

There was nothing fire fighters could do to save the building and its contents but they did contain the blaze.

Ted Smith,
“We immediately got into an attack using two lines, containing the blaze that was coming out the structure and then immediately went in and took out the blaze that was within the structure.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
Where do you believe this fire started?

Ted Smith,
“At this time we do not know.”

The investigators sifted through the debris to find out what could have started the fire.

Ted Smith,
“We have two people who were doing that investigation, they have interviewed a few of the neighbors as well and now they are analyzing the scene, the burnt pattern of fire spread and things of that nature. They are doing that, as soon as they finish they will give me a brief and I will have an understanding of what transpired.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
What are the fire investigators telling you?

Terrence Pott, Home owner
“Well the investigating to see if an iron or something was left on at this moment.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
In speaking with some of your neighbors, they said it looked like the flames were coming from the kitchen area, as if something was left on in the kitchen.

Terrence Pott,
“This morning when I left, nothing was left on. Right now my wife is in the hospital, I haven’t spoken to her yet. I haven’t spoken to her because she was the last one that left home.”

His wife fainted when she got the news. Terrence Pott says he is just happy that his family was not home at the time and not injured. People living in the area say the Fire Department could have done something to save the building but the trucks arrived late. And the reason for the delay may be that there was a problem getting through to the emergency number 9-0.

Romie Anthony,
“A good twenty to twenty five minutes after and then when they got here, the waters weren’t turned on right away. They took a good while before.”

Ted Smith,
“The Fire Department plays what we call a catch up. We do not know when there will be a fire and where there will be a fire. We depend upon people who discover the fire to inform us of the fire. In this case we received the call at 8:05 am from the Police Department. We responded, it took us 5 minutes to arrive here because of the traffic problems at a time like this, this on a Friday morning or any morning where schools and people trying to get to work at the same time, it makes it a little bit difficult to negotiate through the traffic freely. So it takes us five minutes from the station to here. I still consider that to be very reasonable time.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
The emergency numbers were not working?

Romie Anthony,
“Nope, they weren’t. I still can’t get through to 90. When I made that known to a fire man he said he dialled the number and he got through and he is saying maybe it is my phone and I told him no, I have the same network like you do so what’s the problem. That wasn’t fair, I got through to 911 and a young lady told me they don’t deal with that kind of emergency. I was stunned…”

Jacqueline Godwin,
What is the fire emergency number?

Ted Smith,
“The emergency number that exists within Belize in 90 and 911.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
This morning neighbors told us that the only number they could have gotten through was 911 and the 90 is not working.

Ted Smith,
“The 90 is working. The 90, at this time, it goes to the police and the 911 goes to the police and the police will inform us as soon as they receive such information and we would deploy immediately to the area.”

And that was the case when 7NEWS called to test the system.

Operator: ‘You are reaching the operator services and we connect you to wherever you want to be connected to.’
7NEWS: So in this case for a fire, can you connect me to the Fire Department?
Operator: ‘If there is a fire I can connect you to the Fire Department.’

But acting Fire Chief Ted Smith agreed that a centralized dispatch system would be more effective than what is in place. While Terrence Pott and his family will have to start all over again they have already gotten a head start because at the time of the fire, construction was already underway for the family’s new home that is being built to the back of the property.

The only consolation is that the home was insured.