This article is from page 17 of the 2008-11-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
A 79-YEAR-OLD woman died due to smoke inhalation after her house caught fire in east Clare earlier this year.
Ennis Coroner’s Court heard that widow Mary Carey died at her home near O’Callaghan’s Mills, on March DEC e
Fireman Pat Myles said when he attended the scene of the blaze, the ceilings were on fire and there was a lot of smoke and heat.
He said he could see a body leaning over a wash hand basin. He brought the woman outside, but she was life- less and he believed she was dead.
Mrs Carey’s son Anthony recalled receiving a telephone call, indicating that his house was on fire.
He said the roof had collapsed in the back kitchen and his mother had been slumped over the wash hand ba-
sin in the back kitchen. A short time later, a local doctor pronounced her dead.
Dr James O’Driscoll carried out a post mortem examination on Mrs Carey’s body. He said that she had received burns to her body.
A sample of her blood showed there had been a 65 per cent saturation by carbon monoxide. Death, he con- cluded, was due to cardiac respirato- ry failure, due to smoke inhalation.
Coroner Isobel O’Dea expressed her sympathy with Mrs Carey’s fam- ily, who, she said, died in “such trag- ic circumstances.”
Inspector Tom Kennedy concurred and said it was “very difficult to know what to say in a situation like this. It was a terrible tragic accident.”
He complimented the ambulance and fire crews who attended the scene, but said “unfortunately it was too late.”