200-Year-old Church Gutted in Early Morning Fire

Early this morning, a fire destroyed a building that was a significant part of Belize City’s history. The Queen Street Baptist Church, which stood for over two hundred years, went up in flames. This historic building was not only a place of worship but also hosted a school feeding program. The fire’s aftermath will disrupt classes next week, and church services will need to be held elsewhere until funds can be raised for rebuilding. News Five’s Marion Ali has more on this story.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

At 4:30 this morning, Victor Cowo, a resident of Queen Street, woke up to the smell of thick smoke filling his home. When he stepped outside to investigate, he saw that the historic Queen Street Baptist Church was engulfed in flames.

 

Victor Cowo, Queen Street Resident

“I noticed, like, this cement portion of the building looked like flames were coming out from one of the windows. It didn’t seem like it caught the building yet. And that’s when I came back into my house and called 911.”

 

Cowo said he rushed back inside to gather his family’s important documents and some clothes. But as the smoke thickened, he noticed that the fire service was taking longer than expected to arrive.

 

Victor Cowo

“It feels like it took between 15 to 30 minutes. I’m not really 100 percent sure because. The area started to get really smoke, we had, me and my father had to hide in our room because the smoke was actually coming into our yard, into my portion of the room. Yeah, and then afterwards, we’ve grabbed like some buckets, the hose, tried to wet where we can wet.”

 

Gladstone Bucknor, the Belize District’s Station Supervisor for the National Fire Service, said they weren’t alerted until a few minutes after five a.m., but they responded quickly. He urges everyone to call 9-9-0 directly in case of a fire.

 

Gladstone Bucknor, Belize District Station Supervisor, National Fire Service

“ Remember the number, 9-9-0 is direct to the fire department throughout the country, whichever part of the country you are, 9-9-0 comes to us directly.”

 

Marion Ali

“And the 9-1-1 goes through another…”

Gladstone Bucknor

“9-1-1 goes to the police department, then they call us.”

 

Commissioner of Police Chester Williams stated that the fire doesn’t appear to be a criminal matter, so the police won’t be investigating it.

 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“One of the lights, I think, on the southern end was not working and according to information, the fire may have started from there. So it is believed that the fire may be electrical, starting with the area where Um, the light exist that was not working, but that is going to be confirmed hopefully today or next week by the fire department.”

 

The National Fire Service is still investigating, but according to the preliminary report, Bucknor believes the fire likely started due to an electrical issue.

 

Gladstone Bucknor

“We had a power outage between 3 o’clock this morning, between 3 and 4, and immediately after that we, this occurred. We actually look at areas where we see that they have some patterns of burns. So that’s the area we’re concentrating on right now.”

 

Reporter

“So it seems to be electrical?”

 

Gladstone Bucknor

“We can say yes and due to the fact that the current went out and come on with a surge.”

 

Four fire trucks responded to the blaze—three from Belize City and one from Ladyville. One of the Belize City trucks had mechanical issues, but Bucknor said they quickly fixed the problem. It took the team about an hour to contain the fire and stop it from spreading to other buildings. The main school building had damage to its doors and burglar bars. Principal Patricia Wade told News Five that classes will be canceled next week.

 

Patricia Wade, Principal, Queen Street Baptist School

“ Next week we definitely can’t have classes here. We’ll do online. But we are prepared for that.  We’re not expecting to be out too long.We’re working on getting two small buildings that we can put out our man’s field and then we’ll put the babies there.  So hopefully we get things into place. And in terms of the feeding aspect. Well, that is our holdup. Wwe’ll have to ask the parents to bring the, um, food, or, um, let the children bring their lunch, or the parents can drop it off for them.”

 

But the building was more than just a school and a church; it held significant historical value. Pastor Lloyd Stanford has been sharing his sermons there since 1971.

 

Lloyd Stanford, Pastor, Queen Street Baptist Church

“The ministry of this church started in 18 22 and it continue up until last night.

 This strike started in  1822.  And we went through 1931 hurricane, to which the building was damaged and we had to refurbish it to where it is today. Okay.  This school served this community, well the community of Belize City, and in fact Belize as a whole.”

 

Sister Joan Arana, a member of the Baptist community, expressed her feelings in a poem today. She wrote, quote, God placed you on this Earth in 1822 on Queen Street, a beacon of His light in the City was your divinely accomplishing feat, end quote. Marion Ali for News Five.