MONTEGO BAY, St James – An early morning fire Saturday destroyed the 150-year-old Georgian-style building which was home to the popular Little Pub Inn and Restaurant and well-known local artist Ansten Oliver Lee Levy along Orange Street in this city.

A nearby wooden structure which housed fish vendor was also destroyed.

The fire is said to have originated here.

The gutted two-storey Georgian building was not insured.

Fire officials were unable to say what caused the blaze that started around 2:10 am and which required three units from the Freeport and Ironshore fire stations to be extinguished.

Levy, 74, who was asleep in one of the three bedrooms in the building when the fire started, told the Observer that he was awakened by telephone calls from persons alerting him to the blaze.

“It saddens me. I’m shaken by the loss,” said Levy who said he lost everything, including his prized art pieces among which are four murals depicting the history of the Maroons.

Levy was unable to place a value on his loss.

Since last year October when the drought started, St Elizabeth, Hanover, Westmoreland and St James have experienced an increase in fires, according to Valbert Lawrence, the assistant commissioner in charge of the Jamaica Fire Brigade’s Area Four.

“Right across the area there is an astronomical increase… by over 200 per cent and it’s almost challenging our resources,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence, in most cases, attributed the fires to “carelessness”.

“People are starting fires and allowing them to spread elsewhere,” Lawrence explained. “If you look at St James, which has the greatest number of trucks, almost at any given time all the trucks are out on call.”

Lawrence also used the opportunity to urge persons making prank fire calls to desist from the practice which, he said, has been hampering fire-fighters in their response to genuine calls.