Just before 6:00 this morning, a fire broke out at the corner of Castle and Victoria Street. Though the blaze was massive, the firefighters were able to extinguish it quickly, and there were no injuries since the building was abandoned. According to the Belize City station officer, it seems someone who was squatting in the building may have caused the fire. Here's how he explained it:
Gladstone Bucknor, Station Officer, Belize City NFS
"When the guys arrived, both stations responded to that scene, they saw a large house fire. When I say large, I mean it's a two story wooden structure, zinc roofing. That building is an abandoned building and didn't have electricity, let me make that clear, didn't have electricity so the fire had to be started from inside."
Courtney Menzies:
"What do you believe started the fire?"
Gladstone Bucknor, Station Officer, Belize City NFS
"Well at this moment, we cannot say what actually started the fire but however, some type of heat had to be introduced into the area."
Courtney Menzies:
"Do you believe that, while it was abandoned, there were people, evidence of people staying or doing something in there?"
Gladstone Bucknor, Station Officer, Belize City NFS
"From our preliminary investigation, what we discovered was that there are squatters in and out of the building and one main person who was frequently at the house was somebody by the name of Harold. Full name and details, we don't know."
Reporter:
"Any idea if this person, Harold, was there when the fire started or was he there last night?"
Gladstone Bucknor, Station Officer, Belize City NFS
"Well there is conflicting information that yes he was there and no he wasn't there so we're still looking into it. Actually, part of the investigation, we learned that some type of heat was in there last night between 9 and 11 so we're still doing our investigation about that part."
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