And while the family has no idea how the man who was living with them started the fire, the fire department said he's claiming he lit a fish coil to keep mosquitos away.
But they're not buying that because they say there's no way a fish coil could have caused that blaze. Today we spoke with Station Supervisor, Kenneth Mortis, who explained what they know so far.
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, National Fire Service
"The fire started from one of three structures that was in the yard, primarily a 14 by 12 whereby information reached out department that the owner of the property had allowed a homeless man to reside under the establishment seeing that it was an elevated structure. This fellow, Mr. Abner apparently fell asleep and reported to fire personnel that when we awoke, he realized that fire was around him."
Reporter
"Any idea of what may have caused the fire?"
Kenneth Mortis
"At this moment, the investigation is still going. We are trying to exactly say what caused the fire. At the location, we can rule out electrical flaw. We have confirmed that the particular building didn't have any electricity, however, there are still avenues that we are looking at. We learnt that the other two structures, one measuring 12 by 12 and the bigger of the two which was 30 by 20 - those buildings, like I said, were lost. It was from $45,000 being the biggest and then the next two smaller structure both had a $9,000 value. Unfortunately, for the owner of these establishments they were not insured."
Reporter
"Were candles being used since there was no electricity?"
Kenneth Mortis
"That is something we are looking at. We know that Mr. Abner is sticking to his story that he used a fish [coil] and he believes that the fish [coil] may have contributed to the cause of the fire. However, the fire department refutes that claim. We know fully that a lighted fish coil would not cause a fire in a matter of minutes as he claims to when he fell asleep as to when he woke up."
