CHIP PAN BLAZE KILLED 10 PEOPLE
CARRICKMINES INQUEST Hot plate to blame for hellish 2015 mobile home inferno
A CHIP pan on full power caused the horrific blaze that killed 10 Travellers in their mobile home, an inquest heard.
The pan was left on a hot plate when it sparked the early-morning tragedy in Carrickmines, Dublin, in October 2015.
Det Insp Martin Creighton said yesterday: “The electric cooker was the probable cause of the fire. It was close to another unit and the fire spread.”
A CHIP pan blaze caused the deaths of 10 people and an unborn baby, an inquest heard yesterday.
And it emerged the site in Carrickmines, Co Dublin, was exempt from the usual council fire safety guidelines because it was temporary emergency accommodation.
Det Insp Martin Creighton said the chip pan was left on a hot plate on full power in a mobile home at Glenamuck halting site in Dublin, and that was the source of the blaze.
The fire spread and a second mobile home a metre away, also went up in flames in the early hours of October 10, 2015.
Thomas Connors, 27, his wife Sylvia, 30, and their kids Jim, five, Christy, three, and six-month-old Mary, all died.
Sylvia’s brother Willie Lynch, 25, his partner Tara Gilbert, 27, who was four months pregnant, and daughters Jodie, nine, Kelsey, four, and another brother 39-year-old Jimmy Lynch – who had all been visiting – were also killed.
Det Insp Creighton said: “The electric cooker was the probable cause of the fire. There was a chip pan left on a hot plate on full power. It was close to another unit and the fire spread.”
STATEMENTS
He said he believed it was the first time that Interpol victim DNA identification had been used in this country to confirm who had died.
The detective insisted a “full and comprehensive” investigation had been carried out and around 200 witness statements were taken, while there had been close dialogue with Dublin Fire Brigade, CCTV evidence and door-todoor enquiries.
Last year, the DPP decided not to bring criminal charges against anyone, paving the way for the full inquest to be heard at Dublin Coroner’s Court.
It is expected to last over two weeks. Tom Mchugh, the director of housing with Dun Laoghaire/rathdown council, insisted the site was only ever meant to be a “temporary emergency site”.
The council had originally planned to relocate the Connors family from a Sandyford site to one in Rathmichael over a decade ago but a family that had been living there opposed the move.
Mr Mchugh said: “The site was already established when I took on the role. It opened in 2008 to accommodate the family who were living on the roadside at the time.
“There was no planning or public consultation. The site was severely compromised by the road layout.”
Mr Mchugh added as it was a temporary site it was not subject to the same fire safety regulations as a permanent site. He said there was a fire safety regulation exemption on temporary emergency sites and there was no time limit on such sites remaining as temporary emergency sites. Meanwhile, Conor Peoples, a senior staff member at the Dun Laoghaire/rathdown housing department, told Coroner Myra Cullinane they had received “no training or instruction on the guidelines” and there was no mention during their meetings about work being completed on the site.
He added: “We didn’t think there were any safety issues.”
Mr Peoples said there was only a one metre distance between the two mobile homes when the blaze spread between the two homes.
He admitted he “wasn’t aware” at the time that there was an issue with the short distance separating the portacabins, but he now understood the “optimum” distance to meet fire safety standards should be at least six metres.
Meanwhile, chief executive Philomena Poole said she was not aware of any problems with the site but was “shocked and horrified” by the tragedy.
She added: “I jumped into the car and drove out. Like everyone else I was shocked and horrified and I wish to offer my sincere condolences to both families.”
Ms Poole told Owen Donnelly, for the Connors family, she had been aware of the guidelines for Traveller accommodation.
She added: “They’re out since 1998 and they came out when I was formerly the director of housing.” Moments later a relative of the victims then shouted out: “Why did you say you know of the site but you didn’t know anything about it?”
Ms Poole continued: “I was aware. I visited every site in the country.”
Karl Drury, a council Traveller accommodation caretaker for 17 years, said there were four or five fire extinguishers loaded around the halting site and he insisted he carried out an inspection every six months to check smoke alarms and fire blankets inside the portacabins were working properly. He added he visited the site regularly and added: “I know most of them [the Connors] since they were kids, I get on well with them.”
Mr Drury said he had no concerns about the fire safety measures that were in place when he last visited the site on October 9 – less than 48 hours before the blaze.
Meanwhile, service engineer Michael O’driscoll said three fire extinguishers were taken away after the tragedy and found to be in perfect condition.
Dr Cullinane told the eight men and four women on the jury it was a “very tragic loss of life”. She stressed their role would be to hear evidence and record a verdict in the respect of each death.
She said the inquest has “nothing to do with criminal or civil liability” and there “can be no finding of fault or exoneration of anybody”.
Acute carbon monoxide poisoning due to smoke inhalation was given as the cause of death of all 10 victims at a previous inquest hearing.
THE inquest into the Carrickmines fire tragedy in which 10 people including a six-month-old baby and a pregnant mum burned to death began yesterday.
The blaze began in a mobile home belonging to the Connors family, who were members of the Traveller community, at a Dublin halting site and then spread to a second property.
This tragedy should never have occurred as yesterday’s hearing was told it was never meant to be a permanent site.
Last year, the DPP ruled there were no grounds to prosecute Dun Laoghairerathdown County Council under health and safety legislation.
The authority had originally planned to relocate the Connors family from a Sandyford site to one in Rathmichael more than a decade ago but a family who had been living there opposed the move.
Coroner Myra Cullinane told the jury they could make a recommendation to minimise the possibility of similar deaths in the future.
Hopefully, this will be the start of a new chapter for the Traveller community and for the country, the beginning of the end of some of the heartache and unanswered questions that remain for the victims’ families, friends and communities.
If even one life is saved as a result of this tragic experience then something good will have come out of all this heartbreak.