Blackrock pensioner died from burns after coat caught fire on electric heater

An inquest heard yesterday that a local pensioner died after suffering burns to more than half his body when his coat caught fire from an electric heater.

Eoghan Carroll (74) died at the burns unit in St James’s Hospital on May 12 last year, four days after he became engulfed in flames at his home at Sandy Lane in Blackrock

Dublin Coroner’s Court heard from Mr Carroll’s neighbour Sandra Meehan that she was walking down the lane toward his house on May 9 when she saw a man “completely on fire” walk out from behind a hedge.

“He seemed completely on fire from head to toe. His whole head was on fire. It wasn’t like smoking, it was complete flames and I could not make out who it was at all,” she said.

Ms Meehan rushed to a neighbour’s house to get help and others came to Mr Carroll’s aid. When the flames were out, Mr Carroll was “very lucid”, said Ms Meehan. He was still walking and said that the back of his coat had caught fire. “He asked someone to cover him at the back and he said: ‘I’m not doing well lately’,” she told the court.

The dead man’s nephew Niall Carroll was on the scene within minutes, arriving as paramedics tended to his uncle. He ran down to check the house and walked into the kitchen. “You could smell that there had been a fire,” he said. He told the fire brigade, who had arrived and were preparing their hoses to put out the blaze, that there was “no need”.

Mr Meehan was initially taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda before being transferred to the burns unit at St James’s Hospital where he later died from his injuries.

Scenes investigator Garda Aidan Hanlon said that when he examined the house he could see no seat of the fire and it appeared that Mr Carroll himself had sustained the majority of the fire damage. No traces of accelerant were found. When the power was turned back on, the electric heater in the kitchen lit up, the court heard. Gda Hanlon said that in his opinion Mr Carroll received his injuries from this electric fire.

At post-mortem, the pathologist found that he had suffered very severe full thickness burns on 39 per cent of his body and partial thickness burns on another 12 per cent. Death was due to multi-organ failure as a result of severe burns.

Deputy coroner Maria Colbert returned a verdict of accidental death.

Source: Irish Independent

O’Connor murder inquest adjourned again

Gareth O’Connor

A pre-inquest hearing into the murder of a County Armagh man 10 years ago has been adjourned again.

Gareth O’Connor, 24, disappeared in May 2003. His body was recovered from Newry Canal two years later.

The father of two disappeared on his way to Dundalk Garda station where he was due to report as part of bail conditions set after he was charged with Real IRA membership.

At the time, detectives believed he had been killed by the Provisional IRA.

Earlier this year, a hearing was told that 10 people named in police documents relating to the murder have had their identities protected.

Chief coroner John Leckey asked the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s legal team to find out why the names had been redacted,

Some of the people whose names have been withheld are witnesses and some may have been suspects in Mr O’Connor’s death.

On Monday morning, Mark Robinson, counsel for the PSNI, told Mr Leckey that more documents have now been found at Gough Barracks in Armagh and more time would be needed to assess them.

Mr O’Connor’s body was found inside a car recovered from Newry Canal

The hearing was told the PSNI had plans to write to the coroner about this over the next 14 days. However, when asked why it would take 14 days to send the letter, Mr Robinson said it could be sent within the next seven days.

Paul Dougan, solicitor for Mr O’Connor’s family, said there was “absolutely no adherence to timescale in this case”. He added that delays in the pre-inquest hearings had become “depressingly predictable”.

Coroner John Leckey also questioned how the latest file had turned up now and asked “why hasn’t the PSNI an inventory of all material available in Northern Ireland, making it easier to access?”