Gardai in Knock, Co Mayo, have yet to establish the cause of a fire which resulted in the deaths of three elderly members of a local family, destroying their two-storey home early on Saturday morning. Mr Martin Curry (82), Ms Julie Curry (77), and Ms Kathleen Curry (75) died in the fire, which is believed to have started in the kitchen at about 6 a.m. The fourth occupant of the house, another sister, Ms Rose Curry (73), escaped uninjured and was described as "comfortable" at the Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar, last night.
The fire was detected by Ms Rose Curry at 6.15 a.m. when she was wakened by coughing brought on by smoke that had filtered into her downstairs bedroom. She dialled 999 just before the line went dead. A neighbour, Mr Seamus Broderick, was catering to people in his guest house after an all-night vigil at Knock Basilica when he spotted the fire. "I drove up the boreen as fast as I could and I saw Rose Curry outside in her nightdress," he said. "I asked what had happened and Rose just said that her brother and two sisters were still in there. The back of the kitchen was fully ablaze, and upstairs I could see balls of fire. There were no signs of life. I could do nothing." Two fire-engines arrived at 6.20 a.m. from Kiltimagh and Claremorris. Because the boreen to the house is so narrow the firemen had to drag their hoses up from the main road.
Ms Rose Curry was taken to a neighbour's house, where she was seen by a doctor before being taken to hospital. The house, which had been in the Curry family for about 140 years, was destroyed. i still have no clue as to not yet established how the fire started. The quiet foursome who occupied the home will be sadly missed by their neighbours in the small Knock village, home to 1,500 residents.
"It was an unusual situation for three sisters and one brother to be living together at their ages," Mr Broderick said. but they really did get on so well."They were all very well-known and liked in the community, in which they had a deep interest," Mr Broderick said. He promised that Ms Rose Curry would be well looked after by the community when she returned from hospital.
A fifth member of the family, a retired nun, lives in the US. The bodies of the three victims will be taken to the local church from Knock Funeral Home at 8 p.m. today, and the funerals will take place at the village cemetery after 12 o'clock Mass tomorrow.