Avia Collinder, Outlook Writer

Firewater in St. Ann's Bay, said to be the result of sulphur in the water. - Photos by Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Located at the end of a looping dirt road just outside of the Runaway Bay roundabout in St. Ann, Firewater pond is said to be one of Jamaica's best-kept local secrets.

Housed in a makeshift bath area, the pond contains natural gases which create floating flames on top of jacuzzi-like, bubbling waters when lit. The skin, hair, nails, joints, and internal organs are said to benefit from the effect of the sulphur-filled waters.

The spring with its fiery potential is said to have been discovered by Granny May, or Mehala Smith, born on March 8, who states that she is 107 years old and the mother of 18 children.

Son, 56-year-old Lloyd Wilson, who we found keeping her company at her hilltop home, states that as far as he knows, Granny May is 86 and is the mother of three boys and two girls.

No one, however, contradicts Granny May's story of how she discovered Firewater.

For 20 years she worked at Drax Hall estate and would take a short cut down to the seaside. One morning at about 6:30 she saw water bubbling at the root of a cotton tree. She though it was a nearby river which had burst its banks. She tasted the water, noticing that it was getting more plentiful as the day slipped by, and found it salty.

Concluding that it was medicine water, she encouraged her children and anyone who was ill to drink castor oil and spoonfuls of the bubbling spring.

Granny May discovered the ability of the water to flame when, once, trying to burn a wasp nest from the cotton tree, the torch fell into the water and instead of going out, the flames spread.

Baptismal trips

Granny May, the owner of the land in St. Ann's Bay where the Firewater is located, and who is said to have discovered the sulphur spring. A lot of lore has developed around the water, with locals - soon after it was discovered - engaging in frequent baptismal trips at the site of the bubbling spring, which was now a pool.

Today, the pool area has been concreted and enclosed in bamboo and tarpaulin as a group of young men, including some of the descendants of Granny May, have commandeered it as a source of income and 'for the healing of the people'.

The cotton tree is gone, but a spreading guango tree provides shade while Townie, Rastaman, Police, Goldhog and two other masseurs work their magic at the pool, which accommodates five to six persons at a time.

The men heat towels over the flames and apply them to areas where bathers complain of pain, or just provide a general massage.

The 'fire massage' is said to help with poor circulation, "Cripple man walk out of it heal," said 35-year-old Henry McLeod who has been a masseur at the sulphur spring for the last 10 years.

"The water purifies. It comes out of the earth naturally and changes colour as it pulls chemicals form the body," states raw food chef Raymond Tyndale, who often takes holidayers to the spring for a bath.

We watched while Raymond and son Dante bathed, Raymond waking through the flames without apparently being burnt. "The water will only flame at the point where the spring comes out of the earth," he states.

Cooking flames

The fire blazes but the water remains just above room temperature. Raymond Tyndale and son Dante enjoy the bath. Henry Mcleod and his fellow masseurs admit that they also use the flames to cook. In order to do this, they lower the level of the water by letting it out of the bath area and place a metal grill over two strategically placed rocks. Such delicacies as vegetables, fish and roast breadfruit are prepared on the flames when guests are gone.

The waters are let out and replenished after every group leaves. "They don't want to come out ," one of the masseurs chuckled, noting that guests often overstay their time in the pool.

Rastaman told Outlook, "There is a fee charged for using the bath but if people come with no money we won't turn them away. We have been here for 18 years and we want to see the people come and get them healing. They come crippled and can't walk to get them healing. Sometimes we can't find food to eat, but we like it so."

Tyndale steps through the flames, demonstrating that they do not burn if you walk through them.