And from future plans for the power needs of Caye Caulker to the power debacle that may have contributed to a fiery calamity.
In September Elmer Chub perished in an Independence Day fire.
At the time Chairlady, Seleny Villanueva-Pott, said that BEL had a part of the blame, because when the first responders arrived on the scene, the electrical lines were live and on fire. BEL needed to cut the power, before they could start to douse it with water.
According to the Chairlady, because of protocols, the ranking BEL employee had to get permission from his superiors at the Central Office in Belize City. And allegedly, as much as 20 minutes of valuable fire fighting time was lost.
And today as the company opened their flashy new island flagship we asked General Manager Sean Fuller whether there are any truth those claims.
Sean Fuller, General Manager, Commercial & Retail Services
"I believe it was two weeks ago the fire department released their final investigation report on that fire in that unfortunate event on Caye Caulker. Couple things coming out of that report suggest that the time it took for us to turn off the power to facilitate the outing of that fire had no impact on the fire itself. If you take a look at the report the report clearly shows that the time it took us to turn off the power to allow the firefighters had no impact on the result of the fire or the damages caused by the fire."
Colin Gillet, Fire Chief
"The police linked with our investigation and it started in one of the rooms because remember that building had smaller rooms at the bottom. It started in one of the corners in the rear apparently it was due to a candle."
"The somebody fell asleep the candle was lit and it just went from there that's as much as we know that happened."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"How much of an exacerbating factor was the fact that there was some confusion according to the village chairlady with BEL being able to de-energize the lines?"
Colin Gillet, Fire Chief
"Remember if you've ever been to Caye Caulker you see all these power lines. It made it very difficult for a lot of the people who were throwing water to not shock themselves and so I don't want to say that it was a factor that stopped everything but BEL has its procedures and they have to carry out their procedures before they can actually out the electricity off of it."
Jules Vasquez:
"But are you able to firefight with hoses and water while the lines are energized?"
Colin Gillet, Fire Chief
"In that fire we had the truck on one side and another truck was on the other side to attack it from different fronts."
Fuller also told us that prior to the September 21st tragedy BEL had placed two permanent line men on Caye Caulker. Those employees are permanently stationed on the island and available to handle the demands of the population's electricity needs as well as intervene in averting any future crises.
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