Police investigating the house fire in which seven people died in Omagh, Co Tyrone have launched a murder investigation after discovering petrol at the scene of the blaze.
Arthur McElhill (39) , his partner Lorraine McGovern (30) and their five children aged from 10 months to 13 years died in the fire that engulfed their end-of-terrace home at Lammy Crescent yesterday morning. The house was left a blackened shell and the roof destroyed.
The bodies of all seven members of the McElhill family have been identified, but will not be removed from the house until after further forensic examination takes place tomorrow. Postmortem examinations will then be carried out on the victims' bodies.
Firemen examining the house today. PA
Detective Chief Superintendent Norman Baxter, head of the PNSI's serious crime squad, would not confirm today who police believed was behind the attack.
Det Chief Supt Baxter refused to comment on claims that officers had been called to the house on a previous occasion or that there had been some sort of commotion between the two adults before the fire broke out.
"This is a crime scene and we have commenced a murder investigation," he ter said today. "Our initial forensic examination of the home has established that there was a significant quantity of accelerant discovered in the property."
Specialist fire investigators were at the house today trying to determine whether the petrol that caused the fire was lit inside or outside the house.
Det Chief Supt Baxter refused to comment on speculation Mr McElhill was the prime suspect in the case.
A team of 30 detectives and support staff have been appointed to the case.
The family moved to Omagh in the past four years. The children who died were Caroline (13), who was a student in the secondary Sacred Heart School in Omagh; Seán (7) and Bellina (4), both pupils in St Conor's Primary School, just yards from the family home; and Clodagh, (18 months), and James, (10 months).
Neighbours watched in horror as the house went up in flames at around 5am yesterday morning.
Witnesses said Mr McElhill and his wife were appealing for help from the windows of the upstairs rooms while screaming could be heard. The fire was too ferocious for anyone to reach them. By the time the fire brigade had arrived the screaming had stopped.
Window-cleaner John Glinn (21) was beaten back by fierce flames. "The screaming was something I will never forget, it was as if the whole thing was amplified," he said.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said he was shocked to learn police were treating the deaths as murder. "Obviously that makes a bad situation very much worse, the thought that this could have been done by someone is something that is too horrible even to contemplate but it appears now that this is being contemplated by the police."