AN ELDERLY woman died in a house fire most likely caused by a candle after her son-in-law cut off the electricity because he said he could not pay the bill, an inquest was told yesterday.
Ann (Nancy) Cumiskey (81), from Rathfarnham in Dublin, was overcome by smoke in the fire that broke out in her home in the early hours of September 27th, 2009.
Dublin City Coroner’s Court was told that earlier on the night of the fire Ms Cumiskey’s son-in-law, Patrick Gorman, had turned off the electricity in the house and had taken all the fuses out of the fuse board.
This followed a conversation with his wife, Clare, about the ESB bill after he had returned home from the pub. Mr Gorman and his wife were separated but shared the house in Llewellyn Close with Ms Cumiskey.
Garda Lisa McHugh, who investigated the fire, said Mr Gorman told his wife that as he had recently lost his job, he could no longer pay the ESB bill and was going to transfer it into her name.
At 4am Mr Gorman heard a noise and got up to find his mother-in-law, who slept downstairs, coming upstairs with a torch to use the bathroom. There was also a candle lighting downstairs on a radiator cover.
Mr Gorman told the inquest he saw Ms Cumiskey blow out the candle before returning to her bedroom.
Clare Gorman told the inquest she was awoken on the morning of September 27th by the smell of burning wood. “I opened my bedroom door . . . I was hit by heat. It was coming from the stairs,” she said.
She managed to get down the stairs and out the front door, but suffered second degree burns to her arms, right shoulder, upper chest and face in the fire.
Mr Gorman jumped out of his upstairs bedroom window. He suffered a broken heel and smoke inhalation.
A postmortem found that Ms Cumiskey, who was found inside the doorway of her downstairs room by firefighters, died of smoke inhalation. It looked as if she had been trying to get out of the room, a firefighter with Donnybrook fire station, Glen McNevin, said.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell said the likeliest explanation for the fire was that Ms Cumiskey had lit a candle or a match because of the lack of electric lighting in the house that night and in the early hours of morning.
“It was an accidental fire . . . most likely caused from a candle or match in or near the bedroom of the deceased,” he said.
“We don’t precisely know what happened . . . we believe Ms Cumiskey blew out the candle in the hall but she may have lit another candle . . . That seems to be the most likely explanation.”
The inquest was told that a file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, but no prosecutions were directed. A verdict of death by misadventure was recorded.