Santa Elena Home Engulfed in Early Morning Blaze, Leaving Owner Devastated

A man in western Belize lost a significant portion of his home in a devastating blaze in the wee hours of this morning. Around 4 o’clock, a fire broke out at a two-story concrete structure in Santa Elena Town, Cayo District. The fire quickly spread throughout the building and awoke the homeowner, 57-year-old Theodore Lenan Jr. According to Lenan, the flames quickly engulfed the home, consuming the lower flat and all its contents despite the efforts of firefighters.

Theodore Lennan: “I got up to fire and I went to my back door but I couldn’t get through the front door and then I found the keys for the back door and that is when I opened up the house but by that time through one window that was the only one window was under fire. And then they had the curtain was there and then I saw the fire but by that time it was already up in the roof going from the celotex or whatever was already on fire. By the time my neighbors called for the fire engine and we tried out it the fire but it was too big so we couldn’t stop it. So we had the hose through the back door and we were trying to stop the fire but by that time the blaze was too, and then it took about forty five minutes before the fire engine came. Because I called the neighbor, the neighbor got up, I went for my phone but I wasn’t thinking about the phone at the time. Then my neighbor called but by that time we were watching the fire and trying to our it but we couldn’t out it because it was in the roof already and the fire engine came about thirty five or fort minutes before they came and they did what they had to do. I mean we couldn’t do anything because the house was already in flames.”

The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.