Fire Consumes Diamond Grocery and Laundromat in Owner’s Absence

A fire consumed Diamond Grocery and Laundromat while the owner was out of the country. Shop owner, Foyjur Tufaeil who lives on the ground floor of the two-story building on New Road was in Chetumal when he received a call around from his neighbor that his home was on fire.  The upstairs neighbor, Mark Sosa spoke to Love News about what transpired. 

Marc Sosa, Fire Victim: “Last night around 7:30 I was working, because I work from home and apparently I started to smell some smoke or plastic burning. So I thought it was probably my wife she was cooking and she probably left something burning. So I told her to check the pot. So at the same time she said “No it’s not my pot.” and we saw some smoke outside at the same time we thought probably it was the neighbors doing a little barbecue and stuff but the smoke starting coming heavy. When we looked downstairs some of the neighbors that usually hang around they said “out your gas tank !” So I said “What ?” So at the same time they said “Yes fire is coming from underneath your step.” I said “No that cannot be.” So at the same time because there is a little hole there he said “Fire is coming through that little hole and your gas tank will blow.” So they hurry tried to our the gas tank and apparently downstairs caught fire. Now the neighbor downstairs he went out during the day, he went to Chetumal or Mexico for the day and he came back about 6:30 for an hour. He said he just came and changed his clothes and he went back to family to eat and during the hour there the fire just started to catch. Now apparently his AC unit that is the cause of the fire or that is where it started from and that started to catch fire. He had a back room there everything caught fire. With the quick reaction from the neighbor we tried to out the fire and thank God we called him and he came immediately. Same time he came the fire persons came and they tried to our the fire as quick as possible. Well thank God he didn’t lose everything in there just the back room, personal items and I really feel sorry for the man and I’m trying to help him try to get people to come and check the writing and try to fix up the place for him a little bit but other than that Thank God for once I could say for once the fire persons they responded very quickly and they came. It could have been worse because I live upstairs and the floor was already getting hot and I didn’t really notice and my kid she really got scared and basically Thank God that we’re trying to help him out even my neighbor we tried to get some hoses to try to see how we can out it but at the same time I told them no don’t put any water there because it could be electrical, if you add water to electrical it would have been worse.”

The 33-year-old businessman had locked up to his business and residence at 6:00p.m yesterday and came back the minute he got the phone call. Tufaeil tole Love news that while the cause of the fire is still under investigation, he believes that the old wiring in the Air Conditioner caused the fire. 

No one was injured in the fire.