Fire services were dispatched to the north side of Belize City last night where they encountered a raging fire in an old wooden building. Jomarie Lanza visited the scene on Freetown Road today and here's what she learned from the owner.
Residents in the Freetown area could only look on in horror last night after a blaze broke out near the Cinderella Plaza, consuming an entire wooden structure within minutes.
We met the owner of the house this morning, a former football star, 61 year old Maurice "Magic" Francis who says that he had been living there since he was 16 years old. But as the years went by and the structure began to deteriorate he relocated elsewhere and decided to rent out the family home temporarily before he could begin renovating. Those plans though all went down the drain.
Maurice "Magic" Francis, Fire victim
"They informed me at like 6:30 this morning with a picture and a call stating that my house is on fire so I just took a shower and caught the bus and came down here. I wasn't staying here at the time you know because the hurricane that came weakened the structure so I decided to come out and fix a little spot beside it. But it's already gone so I can't think about that right now. But I wasn't in it at the time it happened."
Reporter
"So who was staying here when the house burned down?"
Maurice "Magic" Francis, Fire victim
"We have a very good friend of ours. She has two kids and her boyfriend and they were staying here. But we told them that they had to come out because the house was damaged and we needed to take it down, but you know they say that they are going to stay in there until we are ready to do it. And so we had no problem with it so we told them to be careful. And when I got the message that the house burned down what can I do?"
Thankfully though no one was harmed as a result of the fire. And while the building did not have electricity, the station supervisor told us that they still managed to get an idea as to where exactly the fire started in the house.
Gladstone Bucknor, Station Supervisor, Belize District
"Well as you can see behind me we had a structural fire, a 2 story building that actually burnt down. We didn't have electricity at the time we had people downstairs the upstairs at this present time unknown if it was occupied."
Reporter
"Have you managed to establish the cause of the fire as yet?"
Gladstone Bucknor, Station Supervisor, Belize District
"At this present moment we have a slight idea but it is still under investigation to determine what caused the fire."
"Compared to a fire burn analysis it seems to have started in the center of the building."
If anyone wishes to help Francis he can be reached at 6275308
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