An Early Morning Fire In Belmopan  

A Belmopan resident is left in a state of despair after a fire broke out in her home around four-thirty a.m., today. She is single mother of four, Alisha Latchman who awoke to the smell of smoke surrounding her house. Fortunately, Latchman and her four children were unharmed, but have suffered great financial loss. We visited the scene of the fire today, to hear how this unfortunate event occurred.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

This morning, around four thirty a.m. it was up to Alisha Latchman, to gather her four children and get them to safety, as a fire blazed inside her home. Luckily, the single mother was able to get her eight-month-old twins, five-year-old daughter, and her fourteen-year-old son out of the house unharmed but was forced to watch as the flames consumed a portion of her rented home until the fire department arrived.

 

Alisha Latchman, Fire Victim

“This morning we dih sleep, I dih sleeping inna  living room with the two babies I noh sleep inna dih room. And then  my next two kids, they’re in their room  and  I smell smoke. So, at first I never really paid no mind.  But then I smell the smoke starting to get stronger, you know, so I get up and when I get up,  I realize that the inner of the house the smoke they come from and I look up and I see the thick smoke inner the ceiling. So I grab my two eight month baby from off the ground and I run to the next room with my next two bigger kids there, and there and I try to get them out.”

 

Latchman stated that, in the midst of the chaos, she was concerned for her children as it was difficult to get some of them out of the house.

 

Alisha Latchman

“For a minute, I think my daughter, something happened to her because she never wanted to get up.  She never mih dih move to get up, but we managed to get her up. And we come out by the time we go for exit back to the to the living room area I just see the current gone off and everywhere dark and a lot of smoke and everything. And I see, you know, the front room.  In my room just a lot of fire, a lot of smoke, everything, and I managed to get open the front door and me and my kids. I exit out through the front door with them and they come out through the gate and my son come and halla fih dih neighbors them to help.”

 

She estimates a loss of approximately twenty-three thousand dollars in damages, which includes, furniture, appliances, schools supplies, clothes and documents.

 

Marion Ali

“So you managed to save much of what you own?”

 

Alisha Latchman

“Well, I tried going back inside. Let me see what I could get. I never managed to get much. I only grabbed like  two bags. And I couldn’t do nothing else more because then the whole place full of fire and smoke, thick smoke.”

 

Marion Ali

“So, I see that it’s not burnt down, but it’s scorched  severely, is it still livable?”

 

Alisha Latchman

“Inside damage. Yeah. So, I mean I can’t go back in and go live now, and that’s where I was renting, that’s not my place.”

 

We sought further information at the National Fire Service where Fire Station Supervisor, Kenneth Mortis updated us further. According to Mortis, the fire was due to an electrical malfunction.

 

 

 

Kenneth Mortis, Fire Station Supervisor, National Fire Service

“We conduct investigation. We will learn that the fire was as a result of a electrical flaw and that stemmed from the electrical circuit part of it in the room.  Again, we were fortunate to contain this fire and suppress it before it managed to expel itself from the building, creating more damage to other nearby structures.”

 

Latchman is at a loss for what do next and is asking the public to extend assistance to her and her family.

 

Marion Ali

“You have a number where people can reach you?”

 

 

Alisha Latchman

“Yes, 675-4504.”

 

Marion Ali

“And that’s for Alisha?”

 

 

Alisha Latchman

“Yes, Alicia.”

 

Marion AlI

”So, now that you say it’s not habitable, where are you staying? Who will you be with?”

 

Alisha Latchman

“Well for right now, one of my auntie she have my kids them but from there, I don’t know.  I don’t know what happened. Where we’re going from there.”