The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

POLICE are investigating the circumstances surrounding a house fire that claimed the life of a 59-year-old man over the weekend.

Police Fire Services Chief Walter Evans said he could not say much at this time other than “we’re still investigating the matter” when asked about the Friday incident.

Shortly before 10pm on Friday, firefighters were called to a house fire located at Eden Street and Wallace Road, Chippingham.

On arrival at the scene firefighters found an eleven-room home fully engulfed in flames. After the fire was extinguished, firefighters discovered the man’s lifeless body inside the home.

The man, whose identity is not known at this time, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police are awaiting the results of the autopsy to be able to make a positive identity.

Friday’s fire occurred less than a month after Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade ordered that a case, in which six relatives burned to death in a small four-room structure last year, should remain open as it is a priority for investigators.

Since the family, including a toddler, died on September 23, 2013 inside their home at Homestead Avenue, authorities have said very little as to what could have caused the blaze.  

And while police have remained tight-lipped, there has been speculation that arson was to blame for the deaths of 52-year-old Marilyn Barrett, Unissa Pratt, 23, Jennifer Bisphaint, 22, and her daughter Joashinique King, 2, along with teenagers Trayvon Grant and Melchizedek Bain.

Commissioner Greenslade has assured the public that the Police Force has not lost interest in the matter.