A sociable family and a "tight community" were struck by tragedy early yesterday morning, only hours after they had been celebrating a joyful 21st birthday party.
Friends, relations and neighbours who had been happily marking the birthday of Marie Boyle in Rostrevor a couple of hours earlier were mourning the death in a fire of her parents, Brian and Briege, and her sister, Sasha.
Neighbours had worked frantically to try to save the family. They managed to help Marie Boyle down from a roof window at the family home at Rosswood Park after 4 a.m. yesterday, but it took firefighters with special breathing apparatus to break into the burning house. Neighbours had to restrain Marie Boyle from returning to the home.
There they found the bodies of Brian (50) and Briege Boyle (48) and their daughter Sasha (28).
Next-door neighbour Mr John Franklin was alerted to the fire when smoke from the Boyles' house triggered his smoke alarm.
Mr Franklin, with neighbours Mr Brendan Ferran and Mr Kieran Killen, managed to assist Marie Boyle down from the roof. They tried to break into the semidetached house, but the smoke and intense heat beat them back. They also trained garden hoses on the fire but that proved futile.
Mr Ferran managed to scramble on to the hot roof and broke the skylight window. He screamed into the house to try to rouse the rest of the family, without success. "I tried everything to get heard, but couldn't . . . the heat and smoke at that stage were very, very intense," he said.
As word of the fire spread, local people started arriving at the scene, including those who had been at the party earlier. Local curate Father Greg McGivern was called to perform the Last Rites, and try to comfort Marie. "She was just devastated, totally shocked and distressed," he said.
Local people joined parish priest Monsignor Arthur Bradley at morning Mass yesterday in prayers for the dead and injured. "The overall feeling is just one of disbelief. This affects the whole of Rostrevor, because this is such a close-knit place," said Father McGivern.
The Boyles' son, Shane, had left the house at the end of the party to return to his home in nearby Camlough. According to local people, Sasha also planned to return to her new home in Warrenpoint, but she was prevailed upon by her father to remain in the house.
Brian and Briege Boyle were described as a "happy, fun-loving couple", who were proud of their children, and who delighted in staging a 21st party for Marie. She was due to travel to Dublin today to further a career as a model.
Marie and Shane were being comforted by their grandparents and their extended family last night. Throughout yesterday, friends and neighbours left flowers at the scene of the tragedy.
