Members of the family of the 18-year-old Galway jockey, Jamie Kyne killed in a suspicious fire in a flat in North Yorkshire at the weekend have travelled to Britain as they prepare to bring his body home for burial.
His mother, Madeleine and an uncle of the dead man have been briefed on the circumstances surrounding the blaze in Norton, near Malton in the early hours of yesterday morning, which left Mr Kyne and fellow jockey,Ms Jan Wilson dead.
Forensic tests at the flat will not be completed for days, local police have cautioned, while the results of post-mortems on the bodies recovered from the scene have still to be completed.
Neighbours and friends continued to call today to the Kyne family home at Kiltrogue in Claregalway, about 15km from Galway city to offer their condolences on the death of the young man who went to ride in Britain 18 months ago.
Locals and horse-racing colleagues have already laid flowers in tribute, including flat jockey, Kieren Fallon, who said: "You will be missed everyday. RIP. With love Kirsty and Kieren Fallon."
One of flat residents in, Mr Liam Foley, who lived in the flat below the jockeys said they were always in and out of each other's rooms, sharing drinks, but he denied that a party had been underway.
He told the
Yorkshire Post: "There was no party going on. We were just playing cards and called it a night at 12." He went out to get a takeaway meal to eat in his room.
"When I opened my door it was fire upstairs and fire downstairs and black smoke in the middle. I knocked on their door to wake them up.
"I could not get up or down the stairs so I had to jump out of the window. It was a nightmare. It happened that fast. It went up like a match and there were no fire extinguishers so what could we do?"
A 37-year-old local man has been arrested and bailed in connection with the incident, though police appealed to the witnesses who were in the area in the early hours of the morning.
North Yorkshire police inspector, Tim Hutchinson said the number of floral tributes illustrated the scale of local grief: "This is deeply shocking for the town. It has affected everyone here."
Firemen and police were unable to search the building and remove the bodies for hours after the alarm was set off such was the intensity of the blaze, he said.
The remains of Mr Kyne (18) and Mr Wilson (19) were found on the second floor of a property from which two other young riders Dean Pratt and Ian Brennan jumped to safety.
In Galway, Mr Joe Connelly, the principal of Cregmore National School in Claregalway where Jamie went to school, that Mr Kyne's progress had been followed closely since he left "to live his dream" in England last year.
He is survived by his parents Gerry and Madeleine, brothers Francis, Jason, Brandon and Daniel and sister Cassandra.
