A family who had let their home insurance cover lapse when they had other bills to pay have been left devastated after a fire gutted their home.
Derek Kenneally, his wife, Deirdre, and their three children, Anna (11), Eoin (8) and Oisin (6), have been left with almost nothing following the blaze but are relieved none of the family were injured.
The couple, who live in Mullinavat, Co Kilkenny, both work at Waterford University Hospital. Mr Kenneally works as a clinical nurse manager in the emergency department and his wife works in the laboratory.
They now want to raise awareness about everything that went wrong for them in the early hours of last Thursday morning so the same does not happen to another family.
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“We see heartbreak and torment every day in work but when it happens to your own family, it’s just not something you can ever expect or be prepared for,” Mr Kenneally said.
“Last Thursday, my eldest daughter had a friend staying over. When we went to bed we told them not to stay up all night chatting. It was a summer night with no school the next morning so we didn’t mind them staying up later than usual.”
At around 1:30am the two girls heard crashing and banging coming from the back of the house.
“They looked out the window and saw a bright orange glow,” he said. “They screamed out to us that the garage was on fire and we leapt out of bed to witness what can only be described as an inferno. I ran out to the back and grabbed the dog from his little run, got everyone out of the house and called the fire brigade.”
He told the emergency services the garage was some distance from the house — approximately 14 feet — but that he was fearful the house could be in danger too.
“Within five minutes, the fire jumped the 14 feet over to the house,” he said. “Fifteen minutes later the house was just unbelievable... the whole roof was in flames. The fire brigade were amazing with how quickly they got here but it all happened so fast.”
A Garda fire investigator subsequently told him the cause of the blaze was suspected to be a water pump located in the garage.
“Water pumps have a little switch box that contains a solenoid that can overheat,” he said. “I know they can overheat because my father’s one went a couple of years ago and it caught fire. Thankfully, where it happened with him there was nothing near it and it was just the box that went. I had it in a garage/shed where everything was stored, such as old paint cans and other fire accelerants. I’d ask anyone reading this who has a water pump to make sure that there is nothing near it that could be a source of ignition.”
Mr Kenneally is now lamenting the circumstances that led to him not renewing his house insurance.
“I know the whole country are struggling financially at the moment and we were no different,” he said. “It was one of those things where you cut corners where you can, and you let things slip. When the house insurance was up for renewal there were so many other outgoings at the time, I put it off until the next month and I have to live with that now. People are telling me that I should have asked for a loan or whatever to pay it but pride will never let you do that. And of course pride is gone out the window now.”
In the face of the devastation, all Mr Kenneally can think of now is how the tragedy could have been a lot worse.
“If it was the following night, I would have been at work and there’s a good chance that everyone else would have been asleep,” he said. “It doesn’t bear thinking about, really.”
Communities around the Kenneally family have rallied around in support and a Go Fund Me page set up by Mullinavat GAA Camogie Club has already raised €28,000, with a target of €300,000.
“I really can’t thank people enough,” said Mr Kenneally.