WESTERN BUREAU — The investigator probing last week Thursday’s fire at Barnett Lane in Montego Bay that left 33 people homeless, said there was a strong possibility that the blaze had been sparked by a short circuit from an illegal electrical connection.

According to the examiner, Dave McLaughlin, he had seen a lot of coiled electrical wires in the front of the yard when he visited the scene last week.

“When I went there last week, they (the residents) reported that they had no electricity supply but I noticed there was a lot of burned-out appliances there,” McLaughlin said. “So, there is the possibility that it could have been an electrical short circuit due to an illegal connection (that caused the fire).”

McLaughlin also said he had received an unconfirmed report that an illegal electrical connection was made just before the two houses went up in flames.

“The unconfirmed report I got was that somebody was putting up a connection when they heard an explosion shortly before the fire started,” he said.

In addition to leaving 20 adults and 13 children homeless, the fire, which started before 6:00 pm, also caused $2.5 million in damages.

Ten firefighters and two fire officers using four fire units responded to the blaze, which they fought for about 90 minutes.

Nothing was saved, but the four persons who were in the houses at the time were not hurt.

Meanwhile, the acting senior superintendent in charge of the St James Fire Department, Allan Goodwill, has urged all residents not to make illegal electrical connections to their homes.

“We are very concerned about these illegal connections,” Goodwill said. “Although these things may be removed before we arrive, we can see that they were there and that they caused (or) contributed to the fire. So people need to be very careful.”

Between January 1 and July 31 this year, fires have killed two persons and have left 175 homeless.