Guest house burns down in Meedhoo

A Guest House in Raa atoll Meedhoo was completely destroyed in a fire on Friday night, the Island Office has said.The Island Chief of the island Abdulla Saeed said on Saturday that the four-room Guest House called Meedhoo Villa, run by the island residents, had been destroyed beyond use in the fire.“Luckily there was no one inside at the time,” he said. “As it happened, the incident happened after the man who had been living there had left. The house is completely destroyed.”A Police Official said that arson was suspected but that no one had been arrested in connection to the incident yet. The Island Chief said that the fire had been reported by neighbors.“The people in the house close to the Guest House reported the fire to us,” he said. “By then the whole place was in flames. A large number of residents tried to douse the flames but because some accelerant, like petrol, had been used it was nearly impossible.”Other than a few electronic items inside the building, everything else had been destroyed, the Island Office said. The Guest House was built in 2003 on aid by the Finance Ministry and Villa Chairman Gasim Ibrahim.