Fire kills 10 in encampment

Ten people from two Irish Gypsy families, half of them children, died Saturday when their mobile homes caught fire before dawn. Detectives said it was too early to determine a cause for Ireland’s deadliest fire in 34 years. The death toll highlighted the of- ten crowded, ramshackle living conditions for the homegrown minority, who in Ireland are called Travellers. Police said the dead included two married couples, an adult relative and five children, including a 6-month-old, who were living in neighboring caravans in the Dublin Mountain foothills south of the capital. The council-run site, located on a country lane between rugby and soccer fields, provides places for nomadic Traveller people to park their mobile homes and to use fixed shelters with kitchens, bathrooms and washing facilities. The death toll is the worst from a blaze in Ireland since Valentine’s Day 1981, when 48 people died in a Dublin dance hall.