The removal of the remains of two sisters killed in a house fire in Sligo town over the weekend takes place this evening.
Lisa-Marie Keane (11) and her sister Laura (9) were pulled from the blaze at their home early on Saturday morning but pronounced dead a short time later.
Their 10-year-old brother, Patrick, remained in a critical condition last night at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, Dublin. He was said to have suffered burns as well as smoke inhalation.
Locals have called on Sligo County Council to review the extent of its fire service cover following the blaze amid claims that it took the local brigade almost half an hour to reach the scene.
Mr Colm Clerkin, one of several neighbours involved in a rescue attempt before firemen arrived, said he understood 999 calls had been made at 8.05 a.m. and 8.09 a.m., within minutes of the fire breaking out.
Because there was no brigade on fixed duty over the weekend, volunteers had to be called at their homes and scrambled to the station, located just two miles away. "The extra 10 minutes it took could have saved those two kids," said Mr Clerkin.
"The firemen did a perfect job when they arrived. They put out the fire in a matter of seconds. It's the council we want answers from," he added.
A spokesman for Sligo Fire Service said it received the first emergency call relating to the incident at 8.28 a.m. and responded immediately. He said fire officers, who entered the house using special breathing apparatus, had removed the three children from the house within 12 minutes of receiving the call.
Gardaí said the fire broke out at around 8 a.m. in a downstairs room of the house at Glendallon Estate, Ballytivnan.
The children's father had just left for work but returned when the alarm was raised, and tried desperately to rescue the occupants with the help of neighbours. The front door was broken down and one neighbour, Mr Ronnie Gibbons, entered the house and managed to drag the children's mother to safety from the stairwell, where she had collapsed.
Other neighbours, including Mr Clerkin, tried to gain access through a kitchen window but were beaten back by the flames and thick smoke.
The children's parents, John and Rita, who are originally from Co Roscommon, were taken to hospital and treated for smoke inhalation and cuts and bruises.
Garda forensic experts have been carrying out an examination of the house to try to establish the cause of the fire, which appeared to have started in a downstairs sitting room.
The North Western Health Board made counselling services available to the family and local residents over the weekend. It said it was also putting in place a response team, which would work over the "longer term".
The removal of the remains leaves Feehily's Funeral Home at Carton Cross at 7.30 p.m. to St Joseph's Church, Sligo. The funeral Mass takes place tomorrow at 11 a.m. for burial at Kilmactrammy Cemetery.
