7 News Belize

Corozal Man Perishes In Sleep
posted (January 29, 2024)
A fire in Corozal town early this morning claimed the life of a man while he slept.

Enrique Barahona's brother believes his deceased sibling may have come home intoxicated and possibly fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand. Jomarie Lanza reports:

Just after 3:00 this morning a resident of Corozal Town perished in a fire that consumed his living quarters, located on 7th Avenue. By the time his family members and neighbors became aware that the structure was on fire, attempts to save 49 year old Omar Barahona were in vain.

ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"Around 3:00 AM, police responded to a house fire Corzal Town, upon their arrival, they saw a building measuring, ten feet by 15 feet, completely engulfed in flames. Fire department personnel extinguished the flames and thereafter the charred remains of a person was found inside the house."

Reporter
"Do you know if he lived alone?"

ACP Hilberto Romero, OCED
"Ah, information is that he was there alone at the time, yes."

Barahona's older brother says that he was awakened by the sounds of troubled screams, and upon emerging from his house he realized that the structure in which his little brother slept was engulfed in flames.

Rogelio Barahona, Brother of Deceased
"Look my wife and I were sleeping and around 2:00 that morning I heard three screams, it could be of desperation and that woke me up because it didn't sound normal. It didn't sound like someone was just passing it sounded like someone was in trouble as if they were facing difficulties and so I awoke and when I looked out this side of the house was already blazing with fire and my first impulse was my little brother sleeps there, he lives there. That was the first thing that came to mind. I imagined that he's in there and he's burning. And in that moment you become filled with despair because you don't know what to do. So my first intention was because the fire was already so strong but since I had a pipe close and a hose because I power wash houses I tried to connect them with the intent to stop it from coming over to my side of the house because then it will consume my house too. That was my first intention, so I screamed for my wife and told her to call the fire fighters because the fire is going to spread to us."

While authorities have not yet been able to confirm the cause of the fire. Barahona suspects that his brother, who was a smoker, may have fallen asleep on his mattress with a lit cigarette in hand.

Rogelio Barahona, Brother of Deceased
"He didn't have any electricity in his room. He lived like that, that is how he wanted it. If I could tell you one thing, he basically lived by the seashore, because he works with someone who takes vegetables to San Pedro and that's how he maintains himself. Where the boats are, the guys are, and he drinks and stuff. He comes around yes but he spends most of his time there so that's how his life was. He would come to rest in the night and most of the time I wouldn't see him so I wouldn't be able to tell you what his life was like really the only person who really knows is well…. Honestly it really hurts me that he died. Sincerely I can't explain it and it hurts me because the way he died. It will always stay in my mind for a long while. Because he is unrecognizable and it hurts, it really hurts yes."

Barahona had no children and leaves behind a partner and family members.

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