One of the two firemen who died while tackling a fire in Bray, Co Wicklow, last year had warned of dangerous practices in the local fire service, an inquest into the men's deaths heard today.
Firemen Mark O'Shaughnessy (26) and Brian Murray (46), a father of 13, died when they became trapped inside a smoke-filled factory on Lower Dargle Road in Bray after its ceiling collapsed on September 26th, 2007.
The men’s families claim there was a delay in responding to the fire as the blaze was out of control by the time fire crews arrived. They believe this was a major factor in the two men’s deaths.
The inquest in Dublin was told today that Mr Murray wrote to the county’s Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Joanne O’Connor, three weeks before he died after office workers were asked to check a fire themselves before firefighters were called out.
“It has come to our attention that there have been numerous call-outs that we have not been alerted for, this practice as always is totally unacceptable,” he wrote.
Mr Murray said the first call was in August 2007 after a bush fire on Bray Head and the second followed an emergency call from staff at Trinity Biotech offices.
“On arrival we were informed by staff that they had looked for assistance earlier, however they were told to check it out themselves, a dangerous and unacceptable practice,” Mr Murray wrote. “We hope you will investigate these matters as soon as possible and report back to us.”
The letter, dated September 4th, 2007 was written by Mr Murray, a 10-year veteran of Bray’s retained fire service, on behalf of the town’s firefighters.
“Brian is partially predicting his own demise [in the letter],” Darren Murphy, spokesman for the families, said. “They [the fire brigade] definitely do not respond immediately, what they’ll do is that they’ll look to see if a call warrants a response or not.”
Coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty said a postmortem found the men died in the fire after inhaling hot gases and suffering burns. Deputy State Pathologist Dr Micheal Curtis found no evidence of trauma to indicate crushing although breathing equipment was damaged.
“These are two very tragic deaths and I would like to extend my sympathies to the families,” Dr Geraghty said.
The inquest into the men's deaths opened today at Dublin County Coroner’s Court and adjourned until next March as a Garda inquiry into the deaths continues.
The Garda, the Health and Safety Authority and Wicklow County Council each opened investigations after the deaths.
A man in his 40s and a woman in her 20s were questioned in connection with the fire over the past month but were released without charge. Files were sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions in both instances.
A plaque to commemorate the two firemen was unveiled at Bray Fire Station in September.
Additional reporting PA