My thinking is he was unreachable for 8 years, house burned down (for whatever reason) and became a dangerous eyesore, so they took it down. The islanders face

My thinking is he was unreachable for 8 years, house burned down (for whatever reason) and became a dangerous eyesore, so they took it down. The islanders faced with his reappearance decided not to incriminate anyone and keep quiet. The only question I have is how did it burn down? I imagine it was in quite a state of disrepair after almost a decade of low to no maintenance. Part of it may have been falling down already and the islanders may have assumed he'd simply abandoned his house and the island.