Mentally ill man sets fire to family home

BELIEVING THAT he was scaring off the devil, a mentally disturbed man set fire to his relatives’ house Tuesday evening and completely destroyed the building.

As the two-storey house went up in the flames, the 20-year-old man looked on from a distance, with a smile on his face. Relatives have not seen or heard from the suspect since the fire. The house belonged to retired Police Constable Gibbon Wiltshire, 60, of Secondary Avenue, Pt D’or, La Brea, who lived with his common-law-wife, Edith Harnarinesingh, 50,  seven of his 13 children, and three grandchildren. All of them have since sought shelter at neighbours “or anyone willing to help”. About three weeks ago the arson suspect, who also lived in the house, told relatives someone had given him a cocaine and marijuana concoction to smoke and since then he had been “tripping”. “He say he have to set fire to scare off the devil, and he always setting fire all over the yard,” Harnarinesingh told Newsday yesterday. The woman said the suspect burnt anything he got his hands on, including shoes and clothing.

She recalled that on two occasions they tried to get Roman Catholic nun, Sister Paul, to speak with him but he would always hide. He also managed to elude the police whenever they came to take him to the mental ward of the San Fernando General Hospital. Harnarinesingh recalled that prior to the fire, she had to put out a fire in the yard that was set by the suspect. After that, she said, he sprinkled salt on a piece of stick and was walking around with it and a flute. She recalled: “He went in the downstairs bathroom and set fire. Me, my daughter-in-law and son followed him and out it. Then he poured kerosene on the ground of one of the upstairs bedrooms and we out that too. “He went in the nearby bathroom and light paper. While we were outing that he took lighting paper on a stick and then push it up in the attic,” she explained.

Harnarinesingh said the fire was out of their reach, so the family had no choice but to flee as the flames rapidly spread throughout the house. She said she did not see when the suspect left the house but he was seen in a savannah looking at the burning structure and smiling. By the time the Fire Service arrived the house was already destroyed. The family is appealing to the public for assistance since all their clothes and valuables were destroyed. Damage to the house and household articles has been estimated at $165,000. Up to late yesterday officers from the La Brea Police Station had not yet arrested the suspect. Investigations are continuing.