Paid to Play Episode 3: The one where the author joins the Belize Fire Department for an evening while part of his hotel and several others burn down. He also sees dead people…but in a cave, not from the aftermath of the fire. Fortunately.

While traveling north to Mexico to meet my first tour group, I had the distinct pleasure of serving with the Belize fire department. This isn't saying much really, as their hiring standards are not really that high. If you have a good pair of sandals(optional), a pair of swim shorts (not optional), and a t-shirt, you already own the regulation uniform. And as long as you’re not as drunk as the firefighters that showed up 30 minutes later, you will find yourself useful. Those carrying a pocket knife or headlamp will find themselves even more valuable.

It went down like this. Around 2:00 in the morning, I heard what I imagined to be several drunks running around causing a ruckus outside our very solid, concrete hotel. But through the commotion, I eventually made out what every tourist probably considers to be bad news while on vacation. "Fire! Get out of the building!" Upon further inspection, I discovered the wooden cabana next to our hotel was fully engulfed in flames and quickly spreading to other wooden buildings. So after quickly packing up all my ****, and moving it to another hotel, I walked back to see just what was going on. The fire department had arrived but their water pump wouldn’t start….meaning the fire raged on and spread from building to building while the residents and dozens of tourist stood by watching helplessly. Eventually, we all organized into a fire line and passed buckets of water to each other from the ocean to the fire the old fashioned way.

$1,000,000 dollars in damage later, dozens of backpackers wandered the street wondering where they were going to stay, the real fire fighters found a pump that actually worked, and I went to bed around 5:30am, proud to have served on the Belize Fire Department!