Fire yesterday destroyed the Morant Bay Courthouse which, for more than a century, stood as a monument to Jamaica’s bloody rebellion against oppressive colonial rule.

The authorities were unable to say what sparked the early morning blaze which swept quickly through the mostly wooden interior of the building, leaving mounds of charred debris lying in rooms made visible from the outside.

Deputy Superintendent Clinton Samuels of the Morant Bay Fire Brigade told the Observer that despite the scale of the damage the fire was brought under control quickly.

“The fire was reported at approximately 3:20 this morning,” said Samuels. “It is extensively damaged.”

Samuels lamented what he said was the late notification of the fire brigade, saying that when his team got to the scene “the entire building was engulfed in flames”.

“We could not save anything,” said Samuels. “When we arrived, the roof had already collapsed. Had we received the call much earlier, we could have saved some things. In my opinion, it seems it was there burning a long time before it was reported to us.”

However, he said firefighters worked quickly to contain the blaze and were able to save parish council records, the neighbouring Anglican Church hall and houses in proximity.

No casualties were reported.

However, several persons at the scene expressed anger that the courthouse was allowed to burn, saying that an alarm system should have been installed in the building or a security guard placed on duty.

They also noted the proximity of both the Morant Bay Fire Station and the Morant Bay Police Station, which are both a few metres away from the courthouse.

“I think it’s really disgusting,” said one woman who gave her name as Judy Drysdale. “An important building like this should have a security guard or a fire alarm. And the fire station is just around the corner, and it was allowed to burn like this. But this just goes to show the state of the country.”

The Morant Bay Courthouse is intricately intertwined with Jamaica’s history, being the site where the now famous 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion started.

The insurrection, led by Baptist deacon Paul Bogle, was triggered by poor economic and social conditions in the country, as well as general discontent about injustices meted out to the ex-slaves, particularly in relation to land tenure.

Large groups of mainly farmers, armed with sticks and machetes, marched on the courthouse on October 11 and a few people in the crowd threw stones at the local militia assembled in front of the building.

The militia panicked and opened fire on the crowd, and in the uprising a section of the courthouse was destroyed by fire, and the custos, Baron Von Ketelholdt, as well as several members of the militia were killed.

The disorder led to Governor Eyre declaring martial law, and Bogle, as well as politician George William Gordon, who was accused of an involvement with Bogle, were executed.

Both men have since been named Jamaican national heroes and a statue of Bogle, created by sculptor Edna Manley, was mounted in front of the courthouse.

Yesterday, despite the anger displayed by people at the burning of the courthouse, many were obviously relieved that Bogle’s statue and the commemorative plaque to Bogle and his followers were untouched by the blaze.

“Ah one man survive it, see him there. The big man, the boss, Paul Bogle,” a man was overheard saying as he pointed to Bogle’s statue.

But several students from Mona Preparatory School in Kingston, who arrived at the courthouse on a history field trip, were obviously disappointed when they saw the charred shell of the building.

“We usually do this trip once a year with the students and we are a little disappointed,” Loy Bernard, the teacher chaperoning the students, told the Observer. “We expected to see the courthouse because it is something to look forward to, and we are a little disappointed. I just hope it wasn’t caused by any unscrupulous characters.”

Morant Bay Mayor Joan Spencer was equally disappointed.

“Today is a very sad day for our parish because we have lost our historical monument,” Spencer told the Observer. “It is a very rich history for us and we cherish it. it is going to cost the parish millions of dollars to renovate this place to bring it back to what we’d like to see it. We usually meet at the bottom section, there is where we have our regular council meetings and our caucus meetings. It is destroyed, we don’t know where we’re going to go now.”

Spencer’s reference was to the fact that the Parish Council has been meeting in a section of the building for some time now.

“We have monuments inside there, we have pictures of our late prime ministers, our ministers of local government, our former custos and our former leaders and they are all destroyed,” added Spencer. “At Christmas time, this is where we had our shopping, our Christmas treat; this is where we have it, on this corner.”

Spencer also told the Observer that the building was not insured and speculated that the fire may have been started by one of the many homeless persons who stay at the back of the courthouse during the nights.

Devron Tate, director of estate management and business management for the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, said that the organisation was currently trying to decide its next move with the site.

“We’re basically wondering now what is going to happen to the relic, it is totally destroyed,” he said. “I know that the parish council had some ideas to transform the whole complex into a museum and a sort of exhibition place, I also know that they wanted to institute a development order for the parish and that would have been a critical component of it. One of our plans was to erect a freedom monument at the back to the fallen patriots that served in the riots. So that is our major concern, how we go forward from here.”

Major Warrick Sterling of the Ministry of Justice said that the ministry was currently looking into other locations in the parish to hold court sessions before the construction of a new courthouse in Morant Bay. On February 9, the Ministry of Justice signed an $11.9-million contract for the construction of a new courthouse in the eastern town.

In September 2003, the justice ministry ordered an indefinite suspension of sittings of the St Thomas Resident Magistrate’s Court at the building.

The decision was taken, the ministry said, “due to the deteriorating conditions of the Morant Bay Court House”, which had become unsafe.