At least twenty-one persons have been left without a roof over their heads in two fires that erupted in a span of twelve hours in Belize City. The first inferno that started just before two this morning swept through an apartment building in Lake Independence. Five families, including fifteen school aged children, were jolted out [...]
Less than twelve hours later, another fire on the city’s south side eviscerated an elevated wooden structure occupied by Michael and Leticia Watler. This morning around eleven-thirty, personnel from the National Fire Service were once again summoned to a blazing inferno, this time on Central American Boulevard in Port Loyola. As in the Lake I [...]
Hurricane Sandy tore through Cuba last week causing severe damage to infrastructure and crops; sixty percent of the population has been affected and over one hundred and thirty thousand families experienced disrepair to their homes. Substantial relief support is needed for Cuba and the Belize Red Cross is launching a relief appeal to assist its [...]
A drill was held today at the St Ignatius School to develop a plan for schools in the event of a fire. Everyone was evacuated from the school as CEMO, the Fire, Police and Traffic Departments and BERT tested their preparedness. Duane Moody was on hand for the exercise. Duane Moody, Reporting Classes were [...]
If you looked to the sky this afternoon, a large plume of smoke was hovering over the George Price Highway at the entrance to Belize City. The foam house for the Belize Foam and Furniture Limited at mile two and a quarter on the highway caught on fire for the second time in three years. [...]
A Belize City resident believes his property was deliberately set on fire. Brad Steadman, a struggling artist, was not at the house, which also serves as his studio, when it went up in a blaze. By the time he got to Curl Thompson Street this morning, all his belongings had been destroyed. Steadman says he [...]
A massive volcano eruption has forced the evacuation of over thirty-three thousand residents in seventeen villages, ten miles from Antigua in neighboring Guatemala. Antigua is a main tourist center where many Belizeans visit on a regular basis. This morning, the active “Volcan de Fuego”, which is over twelve thousand feet high, spewed lava nearly two [...]
There was a fire in Belize City on Saturday morning. The home of seventy one year old Juliana Arana and her son Armin was gutted some time after four a.m. Arana, who spent the weekend in Barranco, had lived in the home for twenty years and now has to start all over again. The investigation [...]
The owner of a small business returned to it early this morning to find it had been destroyed by fire. Some time on Tuesday night, Diana’s Fruit shop on Central American Boulevard went up in flames. Juana Sarmienta says she lost produce, appliances and the structure. She believes someone broke into it and then set [...]
Alarms bells went off this morning when word spread that a tsunami warning was in effect for Belize and the rest of the Caribbean following a seven point six magnitude earthquake in Costa Rica. Well, it turned out to be a false alarm sent out erroneously by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and according to [...]
Since 2010, government leaders of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Mexico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic have been meeting and working on the Mesoamerican Territorial Information System (SMIT). It’s a tool that was created to allow countries in the region to share territorial information on risks, preparation and response to natural [...]
Three families, including three school aged children are homeless after their house was gutted by fire at around eleven-thirty on Saturday morning. The cause of the fire is still unknown, but fire officials say that the blaze started inside the front part of the wooden structure and spread quickly through the house shared by the [...]
Hurricane Ernesto brought heavy rains in the north when it diverted to the Yucatan Peninsula. The European Union says it will be providing relief to a hundred and fifty affected families. The EU, via the European Commission and its Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department, has agreed to give over thirty thousand Euros, the equivalent [...]
A fire at the Western Gas Depot was brought under control at about seven o’clock on Thursday night. It was a dangerous operation that risked the lives of the firemen because it involved liquid petroleum gas. The blaze started from a gas leak in the compressor room. Neighbors say the fire started after five o’clock. [...]
After five o’clock this evening, there was a huge explosion captured in the amateur video at a gas depot near Bravo Motors on the Western Highway. The recently opened depot is also a distribution center. A News Five team was on the scene and firemen are still attempting to out the blaze at Western Gas [...]
The rains in the north have seized and the waters are now receding. But in the aftermath of both Hurricane Ernesto last Tuesday and the freak rains that hit Corozal on Wednesday night, there is a lot of damage to the agricultural industry; specifically to the sugar cane crop. Minister of State in the Ministry [...]
There was no hurricane, but residents in the north of the country woke up to streets and even the floors of some homes under water. It can be called a freak storm up north as for the past twenty-four hours, there has been non-stop raining. From three o’clock this morning, several shelters were opened to [...]
Several areas in Corozal Town including Port Saul and the Chula Vista Area experienced a rise in water levels of up to four feet. Corozal Town Mayor, Hilberto Campos, says a lack of proper drainage in those areas prevents the water levels from receding. And in the other areas with proper drainage that nevertheless experienced [...]
The Indian Creek Lodge in Toledo has been under fire by former employees. First there was the issue of an under fed jaguar that was pining away in a cage. That animal had since been rescued by the Belize Zoo. But no one came to rescue the employees who reported to the labor department that [...]
Preliminary results have been released from an ongoing damage assessment in the Corozal District in the wake of Hurricane Ernesto, a category one storm which made landfall in the Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday. While the destruction of infrastructure was minimal, accessibility to outlying areas, including Sarteneja and other coastal communities in the north, have been [...]
The Belize City Council has been giving streets within the City a facelift. It is part of an infrastructural upgrade that the council has embarked on. At least fifty percent of the streets are to be upgraded, but the residents of the Belama Phase Four area are up in arms because they say that the [...]
An all clear was declared this morning for the entire country. Tonight Ernesto has weakened to a tropical storm and is moving across the Bay of Campeche, Mexico. Ernesto made landfall on Tuesday night at around ten o’clock. As it hit the Yucatan coast, the winds of eighty-five miles per hour and rain of the [...]
A little over twelve hours after Hurricane Ernesto made landfall near Mahahual in neighboring Mexico, the all clear was given. While there was no loss to life, there were damages to industry in the north. While Ernesto was gentler than Hurricane Dean, at the commercial free zone, the cash machines are not ringing, but the [...]
In Mahahual, Ernesto dumped heavy rains and knocked downed power lines and trees, causing outages in some areas as it passed through the state of Quintana Roo. Quintana Roo Governor, Roberto Angulo Borge, this morning issued the all clear after the storm had passed. Initial assessments from the Mexican officials show that there were no [...]
When we signed off the news on Monday, Tropical Storm Ernesto was heading in our path. But tonight, there’s a sigh of relief since Hurricane Ernesto is moving away and heading further up north into Mexico. That’s the latest from the Belize Met Service and the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO). This afternoon, the phase [...]
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