Elderly Dementia Patient Left Homeless Following House Fire

Tonight, a Belize City family is trying to put their lives back together after a weekend fire ripped through their home, leaving a seventy‑nine‑year‑old man hospitalized. The blaze broke out Sunday on Rio Bravo Crescent in the Faber’s Road Extension, quickly swallowing the small metal house and everything inside. Investigators say the fire started when Kenneth Flowers, who lives with dementia, tried to make tea on a stove connected to a disconnected gas tank. Now, he and his daughter, his primary caregiver, are depending on the generosity of others as they work to rebuild. News Five’s Britney Gordon has the story.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

Tonight, seventy‑nine‑year‑old Kenneth Flowers has no bed to return to as he recovers from burn injuries that cover much of his body. On Sunday afternoon, he and his daughter, Andrea Flowers‑Sanchez, lost everything when a fire tore through their home and left him hospitalized. Flowers told News Five the ordeal started with something as simple as trying to make a cup of coffee.

 

Kenneth Flowers, Fire Victim

“So I light the stove and put on the hot water. Next thing you know I hear wa cracking inna the tank so I she something noh right ya. Because this thing cry already wa time when I mi know bout it. And same way I hear pow pow.”

 

 

 

 

A faulty connection between the stove and gas tank sparked the fire. Although, he tried to about the flames, Flowers received several burns across his face, torso and arms, resulting in his hospitalization.

 

Kenneth Flowers

“At the same time I decide fi back up and get out ah deh and before I get outta deh good, the flames just come up right outta the burner straight inna my face. Knock me down. I run outta di yard, Like I she, if me and somebody else mi deh there, something mi wa happen.”

 

 

 

Andrea Flowers-Sanchez owns the home that went up in flames. For the past two years, she’s been the sole caretaker of her father, who suffers from dementia. She’d only gone out for a quick food run on Sunday when her cousin rushed over to tell her a fire had broken out.

 

Voice of: Andrea Flowers-Sanchez, Fire Victim

“She called me and said she heard a loud explosion and then she saw smoke. So I had to hurry, get into a taxi and get back home. Because I came out for food for me and my dad. I have nobody else to watch him when I’m not there. So I just took the chance to her come and get the food and go back and happened.”

 

 

 

She said she had purposely unhooked the gas tank and told her father it was out of gas. However, in her absence, he attempted to reconnect it himself. She talks about the struggles involved in caring for a loved one with dementia.

 

Voice of: Andrea Flowers

“It hard inna the sense that I don’t have no real knowledge of dementia, the sickness that he have, so like day by day I di learn or I try read up if I could read up and try help him. Because when I ker he to the clinic, they just give me like Benadryl or pills so he sleep at night and, it noh really helps Sometime I lose him, he get outta di bed and he wanders the street. So it really hard because you deprive of your rest and different things, but F my dad, I have to do it.”

 

 

They’d only been in the house, a donation from Pickstock Area Representative Anthony Mahler, for under two years and were slowly making improvements. Now, they are starting from scratch and are without a bed to comfortably sleep on.

 

Voice of: Andrea Flowers

“So far we get donation fi like clothes. We get a lot of offer for clothes, but we need bed or different things because I need to find somewhere to put my dad because he just sleep on the sofa and he di punish. The clothes mostly for my dad and maybe my baby because some of mines I di try see if I could see. But my baby foot size, like size ten and ina clothes  da like three-t, four-t. My dad that like size thirty-two pants and medium shirts and footwear at nine and a half.”

 

 

While shaken by the incident, Kenneth Flowers is grateful to be alive and is steadily recovering with the help of his daughter.

 

Kenneth Flowers

“It gone fair enough. I’m still alive so its fair enough.”

 

The family is accepting all forms of donations at this time. Britney Gordon for News Five.