A mother-of-four died trying to save her young daughter from a devastating house fire which tore through their family home in Co Wexford, neighbours said today.
The blaze broke out in a bedroom shortly before 2am. It rapidly spread through the semi-detached house in Adamstown, between Enniscorthy and New Ross, destroying a number of rooms upstairs.
A neighbour raised the alarm and the woman, named locally as Alice Connors, who celebrated her 44th birthday yesterday, initially managed to escape.
She went back into the house in a bid to rescue her seven-year-old daughter Mary.
At the same time her 17-year-old son Eddie leapt to safety from a bedroom window into the back garden and suffered minor injuries.
Neighbours who witnessed the fire said Mrs Connors got out of the house as flames quickly spread but went back inside to save Mary.
It is believed that she was overcome by heat and smoke. He husband Tom, who had been out, returned home minutes after the blaze began to tear through the house.
He tried to enter the house to get his wife and young daughter out to safety but he was beaten back by intense heat and was treated for smoke inhalation.
A neighbour who tried to get inside also suffered minor injuries.
Witnesses said the roof of the house collapsed as the couple and a neighbour tried to get inside.
The couple's two other children were not at home last night.
Gardai said the blaze is not being treated as suspicious. And as a forensic examination was being carried out, Superintendent Peter Finn of Enniscorthy Garda Station said the blaze is believed to have broken out in an upstairs bedroom.
"At this stage we are not treating it as suspicious but we are carrying out a full investigation," he said.