MANCHESTER, Jamaica — A Manchester man perished in a house fire on Tuesday night on Bethel Street, Greenvale, near Mandeville.

The fire also left the man’s visually impaired 74-year-old grandfather homeless.

Relatives identified the deceased as Leonardo Brown, 27, otherwise called Joshua.

Firefighters received a call of a house fire about 11:17 pm and dispatched a unit from the Mandeville Fire Station. Firefighters battled the blaze as the dwelling house was fully engulfed.

During cooling down operations, Brown’s charred remains were found in a room.

Brown’s grandaunt Panceta Hutchinson amid grieving over his death, said her family is also struggling to recover from the fire and needs help to provide a comfortable space for her elderly brother.

“My brother is currently living at [another sibling’s] one-bedroom house, so any help we can get to put back the house together, because my brother is blind,” she said.

Members of the public who wish to assist the family can contact Hutchinson at (876) 806 6104.

The family is also calling on the Jamaica Public Service Company to replace a compromised utility pole which is blocking a roadway leading to the fire-ravaged house.

“The pole down from Hurricane Beryl, so the firefighters couldn’t come through this road. They had to go through a [footpath] to use the hose to out the fire. Nothing can pass,” said another relative, Carlene Ricketts Lewis.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

— Kasey Williams