Baby died as fire spread moments after she was saved from portacabin
Katie Connors leaves inquest yesterday A SURVIVOR of the horror blaze that killed 10 Travellers has told how he tried in vain to save the youngest victim’s life.
Mary Connors was grabbed from the burning mobile home at a halting site at Carrickmines, Co Dublin, by her uncle Jim Connors Jnr.
The infant was taken to another portacabin, which also caught fire, but was later pronounced dead in hospital.
In a statement to the inquest at Dublin Coroners Court yesterday, Mr Connors Jnr said: “I reached into the bed that I knew was there.
“I couldn’t see anything with the smoke. It was all smoke then.
“I grabbed a child by the clothes and just reached backwards.”
His wife Katie said six-month-old Mary “was breathing heavy like she had fluid on her chest”.
She told her sister-in-law Kathleen she was still alive and to “look after” the infant and “put her somewhere”.
Kathleen, whose mobile home was just a metre away from her brother Thomas’ portacabin, sobbed as she Kathleen Connors Mcdonagh recalled: “When she was handed to me I didn’t know if she was dead or alive.
“To me she was alive because I told the child to look after her. I was handed a pink blanket and I just ran with it.”
Kathleen left the tot with her son John, four, and told him to look after her before she raced back to her brother’s blazing unit.
But moments later the fire spread to her portacabin.
Kathleen tried to get in after Dublin Fire Brigade arrived but she was stopped and they later removed baby Mary from the home and the infant was Mary Connors pronounced dead in hospital. The inquest heard on Monday a chip pan had caused the deaths in the fire which broke out at 4.30am on October 10, 2015.
Det Insp Martin Creighton said it had been left on a hot plate on full power and that was the source of the blaze.
Thomas Connors, 27, his wife Sylvia, 30, and three of their children – Jim, five, Christy, three, and six-month-old Mary – were killed.
Sylvia’s brother Willie Lynch, 25, his partner Tara Gilbert, 27, who was four months pregnant, daughters Jodie, nine, Kelsey, four, and another brother, 39-year-old Jimmy Lynch – who had all been visiting – also perished.
Coroner Myra Cullinane heard how John Keith Connors, 14, bravely saved the life of his four -year-old nephew Tom after he entered through a broken window.
But he was unable to lift the boy’s parents Thomas and Sylvia from the floor of the smoke-covered portacabin as flames
YESTERDAY
reached heights of a two-storey building In his statement, Jim Connors Jnr told how he saw flames “in the kitchen of Thomas and Sylvia’s cabin”.
He said: “I went to the front door and kicked it in. I could feel myself burning and I had to go back out.”
Mr Connors Jnr grabbed a pallet and used it as a ladder. A bedroom window was broken and he reached in to try and rescue his stricken relatives.
The harrowing scene took place just hours after he left his brother’s home.
He added: “The children went to bed at 8pm. Thomas was smoking his weed.
“All the adults were drinking in the kitchen. It was a good time, not a word of an argument. It was 2am when I was leaving and we were all drunk.”
When John Keith Connors entered the portacabin belonging to his brother Thomas the flames were in the hallway.
He said: “I couldn’t hear any noises from anyone, just the noise of the fire.
“I knew Sylvia was by the door, I felt Sylvia’s leg, but I couldn’t move her. I tried to lift Thomas but I couldn’t.”
The inquest continues.
When she was handed to me I didn’t know if she was dead or alive KATHLEEN CONNORS MCDONAGH