The burnt-out remains of the childhood home of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller at Marley Hill, St. Catherine, following a fire yesterday morning. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

Rasbert Turner, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Spanish Town, St. Catherine:

Investigators say they are treating as an accident a fire that destroyed the childhood home of Prime Minister Simpson Miller, yesterday morning.

The three-apartment board and concrete structure, located in Marley Hill, St. Catherine, was burnt to the ground, allegedly by a man of unsound mind.

According to Detective Inspector Fitz Richards of the Old Harbour police, the man went into the house where he has been living for some time, lit a fire, went to sleep and was awakened by the blaze about 7:00 a.m. He was not injured.

House was insured

A unit from the Old Harbour Fire Department extinguished the blaze. It was not established if the house was insured.

"The police are treating it as an accident and as such, the man won't be charged. However, further investigations will be done," says the detective.

Several persons who spoke to The Sunday Gleaner said that the burning of the house dampened the high spirits the community once had, knowing that there was actually a structure connected to the history of Jamaica's first female Prime Minister.