Man who sounded alarm died in fire

A man who sounded the first warning that fire had broken out in a block of bedsits was later found dead on the top floor, Dublin…

A man who sounded the first warning that fire had broken out in a block of bedsits was later found dead on the top floor, Dublin Coroner’s Court has heard.

Thomas Carney (40) was in the building when a fire broke out in the ground-floor bedsit of the house at Cabra Park, Phibsboro, just before midnight on December 13th, 2010. He went back upstairs to his own bedsit on the top floor.

Fellow resident Robert Devon raised the alarm with the rest of the residents and, at one point, went back into the house to help one of them get out of the house.

However, when firefighters searched the house after the fire had been extinguished, they found Mr Carney on the top landing crouched in a corner with his hands over his head. He was unresponsive and pronounced dead at the Mater hospital.

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The postmortem found that Mr Carney had died as result of smoke inhalation and burns. Coroner Dr Brian Farrell yesterday returned a verdict of accidental death.