Fire claims residences in Belize City, Burrell Boom

There was a pair of house fires in the Belize District over the holiday weekend. In Belize City around three a.m. Sunday morning, a fire was reported at the Pickstock Hutments where a small wooden structure was engulfed in flames. Resident Gareth Gill, leader of the Pickstock Carnival Band, reported that sometime around two-fifty a.m. he was inside his house when he heard a bang on his roof and noticed that his house was on fire. The fire was extinguished by personnel from the Fire Department. The estimated cost of damages is over ten thousand dollars, most of it accruing from carnival costumes being stored in the residence. Meanwhile in Burrell Boom, the wooden section of a two-story house was engulfed in flames just two hours earlier. Fifty-four year old resident Natalie Hyde said she and her son, Jairo Perdirio Junior., where sleeping upstairs when she was awaken by the strong smell of smoke and further observed that her washing machine was on fire. Hyde’s neighbors assisted her in extinguishing the fire. The cost of the damages is not yet ascertained. Fire Department personnel are yet to assess the scene.