The Nation - News from May 3, 1987

A brush fire destroyed the “wigwam” home of a self-styled hermit battling city and state officials who want to evict him from a Boston park. Bill Britt, who says he is 52, was not at his home near the park’s reservoir at the time of the blaze, which officials said destroyed all his possessions. Britt’s fight to keep his park home was to be the subject of a TV miniseries starring Mickey Rooney. When told of the fire, Britt said he planned to return to the reservoir and rebuild. The cause of the fire was under investigation.