HERO BUILDER SAVES FAMILY
Local man risks his own life in daring fire rescue
A BUILDER who raised the alarm about children trapped in a New Ross house on fire last Friday has been hailed a hero for risking his life to save them.
Peter O’Neill, pictured inside right, saw two of the children getting sick and gasping for air out of the third storey window of the house on Mary Street located next door to the premises he was working on.
Peter, from Old Ross, was half way in to the house when he could feel his lungs filling with black smoke.
‘I couldn’t see my hand in front of me; it was pure black smoke everywhere. And the smell was just crazy, like wire burning.
‘I thought there was no hope for the child with all the black smoke and the other children getting sick out the window.’
These are the words of Peter O’Neill, 47, who was working alone on a derelict building at 30 Mary Street at around 3.30 p.m. on Friday when he smelled smoke.
Peter said: ‘ I was up on the second floor. I got an awful strong smell and as there is no window on the floor I stuck my head out and saw smoke bellowing through all of the windows in the house next door.’
Peter rang 999 immediately and ran downstairs.
‘I went around and saw two kids getting sick and gasping for air out of the third storey window. My heart was pounding. I had no ladder with me and there was no way in so I tried to get in through the front window.’
Peter was half way in to the house when he could feel his lungs filling with black smoke.
‘I couldn’t see my hand in front of me; it was pure black smoke everywhere. And the smell was just crazy, like wire burning. I was feeling overcome so I came back out and as I did the firebrigade were arriving.’
Battling sickness, Peter ran around the back of the house showing the firemen the children.
‘I saw the father at the back door. I’m not sure how long he had been there. The children were so high up. I felt so helpless without a ladder. I could feel myself going so I couldn’t
Peter O’Neill.
do anymore.’
The firemen used a ladder to access the rear third storey window where the boys were.
As they did the eldest child, (believed to be nine), pointed back at the house and shouted that his brother was still inside the burning building.
Two crews of firemen wearing breathing aparatus entered the building and found the child on the floor beside a bed, having heard him coughing.
The child was carried outside limp and lifeless where he was treated in the middle of Mary Street by paramedics.
‘ They administered CPR and he came back. I have never seen anything like it before. I was fairly distraught all weekend. When there are kids involved and you are a father it just breaks your heart to think of them gasping for air and to see them lifted out. I thought the youngest boy who was two-anda-half wasn’t going to make it.’
Peter said when the firemen knocked in the back door he saw the flames.
The cause of the blaze is still being investigated, but it is understood that it resulted from an electrical fault.
Peter was treated with oxygen at the scene and taken by ambulance to University Hospital Waterford.
‘I had savage tightness in my chest and found it hard to breathe. They put me on oxygen and put something into my arm and pumped something in to my blood to clear out my lungs. I was on oxygen for 12 hours before being released on Saturday. ’
Peter, from Dunanore, Old Ross, was on a bed opposite the three children, with his wife Chirstine by his side.
The father-of-one said he broke down in tears, overcome with emotion, looking at the three boys in beds opposite him, thinking what could have been had he not smelled the smoke.
He said fortunately the children’s two older siblings and mother were nowhere near the house, which was only recently refurbished, at the time.
‘I hear the children are still in hospital for more tests. I hope they make a full recovery soon. Nobody died and that is the good outcome in my eyes. As one of the firemen said five more minutes and it could have been four hearses and not four ambulances.’
Peter praised the firebrigade saying the youngest child would – in all likelihood – not be alive today if not for their speedy response.
‘ They kicked the door in and rescued the children. They are unbelievable. They don’t get paid half enough for what they do. What they did by running in there and dealt with difficult circusmtances after. They are something else and you have to give them credit.’