Gardai believe a car cigarette lighter or box of matches may have started the fire which killed three children in Dublin. Technical experts from Garda headquarters are expected to examine the Toyota Starlet mini-van today in an attempt to establish how Saturday's blaze began.
But emergency personnel who were at the scene believe newspapers and other material in the vehicle may have first caught fire, and speculated the children could have been playing with a lighter.
One Garda source said there may also have been a box of matches in the van. But he added that gardai who examined the vehicle could only guess the cause of the blaze. Amber Quinn (5), her sister Megan (4), and baby Ryan (2) died as a result of the fire. They were about to join their father on an afternoon outing to mark Megan's birthday.
Mr John Quinn had picked them up from their mother's home in Dunsink Drive, Finglas but was still in the house when the fire started.
Witnesses said Mr Quinn and neighbours tried in vain to free the children, one smashing the back window of the van with a chain. But although the fire brigade and ambulances were at the scene within a few minutes, the children were dead on arrival at Temple Street Hospital.
One of the last people to see them alive was Ms Michelle Murphy, who lives two doors away from the Quinns and outside whose house the van was parked. Minutes before the fire, they called to the house asking if her four-year-old daughter would come to play with them later.
"Then they knocked again, asking did I like Megan's new Spice Girls jacket. Then I went upstairs and from the window I saw Amber and Megan in the front of the van and they waved up at me. The next thing I knew there was a man at my door asking me was that my car outside that was on fire."
Ms Murphy rang the fire brigade which, she said, arrived "in a couple of minutes," followed by ambulances. The children all appeared unconscious when taken from the vehicle.
The family moved to Dunsink Drive only last year and, after separating from his wife Lorraine, Mr Quinn called at weekends to take the children out. A fourth child, 10-year-old Francis, was in the house when the fire happened.
In Dunsink Drive yesterday, flowers and miniature teddy bears were taped to a pole at the spot where the tragedy occurred. One of the notes read: "Amber, Megan and Ryan, rest in peace little angels", while another featured a poem written by a neighbouring child.
