Smoke inhalation blamed for triple tragedy
Post Mortems carried out on the bodies of three men who died in a derelict house fire in Roscommon on Friday, September 14, have revealed that smoke inhalation caused their deaths.
The men, who have been named as Ian Finn (49), John Kerr (26) and Micheál Beirne (48), were discovered in the house in St Ciaran’s Park, Roscommon Town at around 7.30am by gardai. The grim discovery was made by emergency services following reports of smoke seen coming from the house.
When gardai entered the property they found the three men slumped on a couch and two chairs at the front of the house. Gardai also found evidence that a small fire began in an armchair in the front room. Although the fire had died out by the time gardai forced entry into the premises on Friday morning, there was evidence of smoke damage to the room.
The scene was preserved pending the arrival of the State Pathologist and crime scene examiners from the Garda Technical Bureau.
The youngest of the trio, John Kerr had moved to Frenchpark in the last few years from Dublin and Ian Kerr had also recently moved to Roscommon after spending most of his life in London. Father of three, Micheál Beirne hailed from Rathcrogan.
Over the weekend a number of people left floral tributes at the scene of the fire and community representatives expressed their shock at the deaths. Mayor of Roscommon, Cllr Tom Crosby, has extended his sympathies to the families of the three men, describing it as a “tragedy for the entire town”.
Gardai are continuing to investigate the cause of the fire, but it is understood that it is thought it may have been started by a cigarette.
The funeral of Mr Beirne, Sheepwalk, Frenchpark took place on Monday and Mr Kerr’s funeral will take place at Whitehall, Dublin today (Wednesday). Funeral arrangements have yet to be announced for Mr Finn.
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Weather for Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland
Friday 24 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 5 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 7 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South
