Gardaí in Kilkenny are investigating the cause of a house fire in which an elderly man died early yesterday morning. Four other occupants of the terraced house - a man, a woman and two boys - escaped unharmed but were treated for smoke inhalation at St Luke's Hospital.
The house on Parnell Street, opposite the Scoil Mhuire primary school, was destroyed by the fire and remained sealed off yesterday while it was examined by Garda technical experts.
Noel Byrne, who lives on the street, was woken by noise sometime after 4am and went out "to see the whole place blazing". He said the rented house was home to Linda Armstrong and her son Jason (11).
He said the man who died was Jack Watson, aged in his 70s, and from the village of Freshford. He was a guest in the house. The identity of the other man is not known and the second boy was a friend of Jason who was believed to have been staying overnight.
The emergency services were alerted but it was prompt and brave action by quick-thinking next-door neighbours which saved the lives of the two children before the fire crews reached the scene.
Áine Connellan (23), who lives next door, said she woke up at about 4am and "heard screams and people shouting for help". She and her boyfriend, Patrick O'Neill (27), went outside and saw Ms Armstrong "in a disoriented state" outside her house and "a man standing on an upstairs window sill". He was "trying to jump and saying 'I can't, I can't'," but subsequently he did leap to safety.
Ms Connellan, concerned about the whereabouts of Jason, told Mr O'Neill to "kick in the door". Mr O'Neill said when he broke through the door, he noticed the house was "billowing with smoke" and engulfed by the fire.
He could see nothing but could hear the children on the stairs. He called out to them and they ran towards him to safety.
Shortly afterwards, fire crews and gardaí arrived at the scene. Chief fire officer Ciarán Cormican said when they arrived "flames were coming out of all the windows and people were already out except one man".
His body was removed to Waterford Regional Hospital for a postmortem.
