Cindy O?Brien arrived back on the Island yesterday with her son and daughter after undergoing treatment for breast cancer for the last couple of months ? only to find out that her wooden house had caught fire.

The blaze caused $15,000 worth of damage to the master bedroom of the Lighthouse Hill, St. David?s wooden home yesterday morning.

Mrs. O?Brien said: ?I found out when I arrived at the airport and my husband said he had some bad news... he said it was about the house.?

A passer-by saw smoke billowing out of the house around 11 a.m. and called 911 from a neighbour?s house.

The Bermuda Fire Service arrived at the home as the neighbours were attempting to douse the fire with a garden hose. Firefighters were able to contain the blaze to the master bedroom, although it caused extensive damage to the room and burned a hole through the outside wall.

Neighbour Roseann Pitcher said: ?I feel very bad that she was abroad and has to come back and deal with this.?

Mrs. O?Brien said she was fine and her family is now staying with her mother as the house has been declared uninhabitable.

?I just told people at the hotel where I was staying that I couldn?t wait to come home and have a nice, fresh Bermuda shower and lay on my lumpy bed,? she said.

?I went and sat on the dry side of my bed and looked around and thought ?oh dear?.?

The O?Brien home is old and wooden; one neighbour told that part of the building had been around since the Boer War, which ended in 1902.

Mrs. O?Brien said the house used to be called The Academy and the master bedroom, along with several other rooms, had been added later.

Fire service spokesman Lt. Dana Lovell said the cause of the fire appeared to be old, electrical wires.

He added that if homeowners suspect anything suspicious about their wiring they should have it surveyed by a professional electrician.