A for­got­ten lit mos­qui­to coil is be­lieved to have caused a fire that de­stroyed the Moru­ga home of 67-year-old pen­sion­er John Brave­boy.

“I was at home sleep­ing. I heard crack­ling and re­alised the house was on fire,” Brave­boy re­called. He lived alone at Ed­ward Trace, Basse Terre.

The fire start­ed in the kitchen area where he had ear­li­er lit a mos­qui­to re­pel­lent coil. “I held it for a while then I rest it on a con­densed milk pan and I went to bed. I be­lieve that was what caused the fire,” he said. The wood­en house was quick­ly en­gulfed. “I tried to put on a hose to con­tain the fire. As soon as I plugged in the pump, the break­er tripped. The pump couldn’t work,” he re­called.

He said de­spite hav­ing a fire ex­tin­guish­er in the house, “In the pan­ic, I did not re­mem­ber that.”

His clos­est neigh­bour lives a quar­ter mile away. Brave­boy said he ran to the neigh­bour’s home and with their as­sis­tance they were able save his car.

By the time the fire ser­vices ar­rived, his home was com­plete­ly gut­ted. He is now stay­ing with a rel­a­tive. Any­one will­ing to as­sist him re­build his home can con­tact 271-4212.

—Sascha Wil­son