A woman in her fifties died in an early-morning house fire in Clonmel yesterday following a spate of suspected arson attacks in the town.
Investigating gardaí said it was "too early to speculate" on whether the house was targeted or how, precisely, the fire had started.
The woman's body was removed to Waterford General Hospital where the Deputy State Pathologist was expected to carry out a postmortem. She was named locally as Anne Marie O'Neill.
Her husband Pat, who escaped by jumping from an upstairs window in the house, sustained an ankle injury. He was taken to Clonmel hospital where he was said to be "comfortable".
The couple, both from Co Tipperary, were alone in the house at the time.
Supt Chris Delaney, who is leading the investigation, said gardaí and fire services had been called to "a number of fires" during the early hours of Friday.
While en route to the O'Neills' house gardaí happened upon another house on fire and "managed to get the sole occupant to safety".
The exact location of all the fires has not been confirmed but "upwards of four separate scenes are being preserved for technical examination".
It appears that the fire at the O'Neills' house may have been caused by a rubbish bin being set alight after which the flames spread to a car in the drive. An explosion in the car may then have resulted in the flames spreading to the house.
Supt Delaney appealed for information from members of the public. He said gardaí were pursuing a number of lines of inquiry but were keeping an "open mind" about the investigation.
Yesterday, the charred and blackened house in the Elm Park council estate close to the Cashel roundabout in Clonmel remained cordoned off.
Local residents brought flowers which they handed over to the garda on duty and asked that they be placed outside the house.
Darren Ryan, a Labour councillor and chairman of the Elm Park Residents Association, said the community was "totally saddened" by the "tragic death" of Mrs O'Neill.
He described her as "a true lady" and said he had met her and her husband last Sunday when they had asked him to "give a letter to the borough council asking for a wall to be built to block off a massive playing area beside their house".
The house is located next to a large green area which Cllr Ryan said is used "as a rat run and a quick getaway from the estate".
He said the estate of 306 houses has suffered from "antisocial behaviour" and had endured a "spate of wheelie bin burnings". But he stressed that "99.9 per cent of people here are decent, hard-working people".
Last week in Kilkenny, gardaí dealt with a similar situation when rubbish bins at a number of locations throughout the city were set alight late at night.
In one incident, 200 people were evacuated from the city centre when a burning bin outside an apartment building caused a leak in a gas pipe. A spokesman for the fire service said a major disaster could have occurred.