Roy Wilkins usu­al­ly burnt pieces of wood in a small pot in­side his home to keep away mosquities as the house, over­grown with vines, har­boured many in­sects.

Around noon yes­ter­day, burn­ing cin­ders caught on the hang­ing vines and with­in a mat­ter of min­utes, the wood and con­crete house went up in flames.

The build­ing, sit­u­at­ed at Al­ta Gar­cia Trace, Siparia, was com­plete­ly de­stroyed.

Wilkins, 38,  told po­lice that the house was not out­fit­ted with elec­tric­i­ty so he used kerosene lamps. He said mos­qui­toes were a great prob­lem for him so he usu­al­ly smoked them out us­ing pieces of wood.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said the house mea­sured 12 me­tres by eight me­tres and was val­ued at $50,000 while house­hold ar­ti­cles were val­ued at $5,000.

Of­fi­cers of the Siparia Fire Sta­tion re­spond­ed to the fire and have deemed it ac­ci­den­tal.