Sickout Leaves Six Firemen to Extinguish Belize City Fire

A mother and her four children are left homeless tonight after a devastating fire destroyed their home earlier today. Yvette Bernardez was at work when she got the heartbreaking news that her house was on fire. She lost everything in the blaze. To make matters worse, the National Fire Service’s response was disappointing, with only six firefighters showing up due to a sickout by their colleagues. Here’s News Five’s Isani Cayetano with the story.

 

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

This morning, a residential fire in Belize City destroyed a small, elevated structure on Neal’s Pen Road Extension. Responders from the National Fire Service, including Station Officer Gladstone Bucknor and Kenyatta Grey, were on the scene, joined by a messenger, a mechanic, and two other firemen. With most of their colleagues calling in sick, this small team was left to tackle the blaze on their own.

 

Gladstone Bucknor, Station Officer, Belize District

“The fire is a three-bedroom, four feet elevation house, eighteen-by-twenty, owned by Yvette Bernardez.  She’s a security guard.”

 

Isani Cayetano

“What can you tell us, preliminarily in terms of what you believe to be the cause of this fire?”

 

Gladstone Bucknor

“I can’t answer that at the moment.  We still have to do some investigation.  The guys are mopping up right now, so as soon as they are finished mopping up then we are going to go in and see what would have been the cause of it.”

 

Isani Cayetano

“In terms of containment, what was the response like and how quickly were you able to get this fire under control?”

 

Gladstone Bucknor

“When the guys got the call, there’s no other house immediately in the area, as you can literally see, it’s a London bridge to the structure.  So there’s no other immediate threat to any other structure around it.”

 

Yvette Bernardez, thirty-six, was on duty as a security guard when she got the alarming news about the fire. By the time she rushed back home, she found nothing but a pile of rubble where her house once stood.

 

Yvette Bernardez, Fire Victim

“When I left this morning for work, after five, I called my children this morning and asked them if everything was good, they got ready for school.  My daughter was the last person that I spoke to, every day as she goes to work as she goes to work at Public’s.  Every fifteen minutes I spoke with her.  She told me, “Mom, everything is good.  Today, as I came off the phone with her, I got a call that my house is on fire.  I don’t understand, I noh know weh gaan wrong.  I don’t know.  I try my best and I work.  Da just me and my four kids.”

 

Bucknor and his team worked tirelessly, even though they initially faced challenges with not enough hands on deck and a shortage of water.  During today’s sickout, it could have been a real disaster if a fire had broken out somewhere else.

 

Gladstone Bucknor

“Our mechanics are well versed with the truck so they do as much as they can.”

 

Reporter

“But you didn’t have firemen with you…”

 

Gladstone Bucknor

“Well I am a firefighter.  This is me and I am second in command.  We are firefighters so this what we do. As the officer in charge, we respond to all scenes.  If you are asking me if there are other firemen around, you know, with all due respect, all the officers have the right to call in sick.”

 

Isani Cayetano

“How do you carry out your job effectively amidst this particular situation where you don’t have the kind of manpower?  This could have been a bigger fire and you have limited resources, in terms of manpower.

 

Gladstone Bucknor

“In that case, then we rely on other resources.  In that case, then we rely on other resources like the police force or any other personnel who can come in and assist.”

 

Bernardez said she got the alarming call about the fire just moments after hanging up with her daughter.

 

Yvette Bernardez

“As I came off the phone with her, I got a call from someone that my house is on fire.  I don’t understand. I noh know weh gaan wrong, I noh know.  I try my best and I work, da just me and my four kids.  I try my best. I noh know, I noh know weh fi seh. I done cry wahn lot.  But at the end of the day, God strong.  He gives me the strength and courage to go on.  But I know, I left everything eena fi he hand.”

 

Residents in the area believe that the fire was sparked by an electrical short.

 

Marsha Belisle, Resident, Neal Pen Road Ext.

“That is what caused the fire, faulty electrical.”

 

Isani Cayetano

“So, describe for us either the resident or the people who live at that structure that’s under fire.”

 

Marsha Belisle

“That is one of my neighbors.  I sympathize with her.  That lady struggled to build her house on her own, from scratch, you understand.  She’s been going through a lot.  She’s there with her children and the fire just came and everything’s gone.”

 

Isani Cayetano for News Five.