BROWN’S HALL, St Catherine – The police in the hometown of Jamaica’s Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said yesterday they could not confirm residents’ reports that a fire, which destroyed the house where the prime minister grew up, was an act of arson.

“We don’t know about that yet,” Detective Inspector Fitz Richards said. “Arson is to maliciously and wilfully set fire to a building. We don’t know of that yet.”

Richards said the police were summoned to the scene at about 7:30 yesterday morning after a passer-by reported seeing flames coming from the small dwelling. He said the unoccupied building was completely destroyed by the fire but could not place a value on the extent of the damage.

Councillor Ralston Wilson (PNP, Old Harbour North Division), who lives in Brown’s Hall, said he had known the prime minister since she was a girl.

“As a matter of fact, where the house is, my family land is right next door and we used to go there to look wood,” Wilson said, adding that the fire was a “disgusting thing to happen to this community”.

Yesterday, when the Sunday Observer visited the area, residents speculated that a man, said to be of unsound mind, had set the fire. They said the man, who stays at the house sometimes, went to a shop in the area, bought a lighter and a bottle of rum cream, then headed in the direction of the house. They said shortly after, smoke was seen coming from the house.

Wilson, who said he had spoken to the prime minister, said she was broken.

“She was most upset when I spoke with her… and I strongly suspect that she is coming here this evening,” Wilson said.

Wilson said even though the house had been unoccupied for a few years since Simpson Miller’s sister stopped living there, it was accessible to any one. He said furniture and other items were still in place.

“Just the other day, someone went in there and saw a Bible and read the Bible and put it back down and she was saying she was sorry she didn’t take the Bible with her,” Wilson said.