Faulty heater may have caused fatal fire

INVESTIGATORS believe a faulty heater may have caused a house fire that killed a man in Dublin yesterday.

The fire ripped through the house in Rathmines, Dublin 6, in the early hours of yesterday, killing one person and injuring two others.

The blaze broke out at around 7am at a house on Grove Park, just behind Grove Road near the Grand Canal.

Units from the Dublin Fire Brigade in Dolphin’s Barn and Donnybrook attended the scene after the alarm was raised.

It’s understood the house was divided into a number of flats all of which are occupied.

Investigators believe that a faulty heater may have caused the property to go up in flames.

The three people were taken to the nearby St James’s Hospital where the man was later pronounced dead.

The other two people remain in hospital and their injuries are not believed to be serious.

The fire is thought to have started in the middle floor of the building, which contains up to eight flats.

Keith Flynn, who lives in the area, said he was shocked when he woke up to the news. ‘I was on my way to work and all I could see was thick black smoke,’ he told the Mail yesterday. ‘It is really awful. You can only imagine how frightened you would be in something like that.

‘I feel for the person who died and their family and friends.’

Mary Maguire said she was driving by on her way to college when she saw the flames. She said: ‘It is really terrifying. I think it is just shocking. I feel for the man’s family.’

The deceased man is understood to have died from smoke inhalation.

Gardaí are not treating the fire as suspicious and believe it started in the flat