Death of pensioner (86) in house fire shocks community ahead of Christmas

The death of an 86-year-old widower in a house fire in Carrigaline in Co Cork has shocked the local community and cast a pall of gloom over the town as it prepares to celebrate Christmas, a local public representative has said.

Cllr Seamus McGrath of Fianna Fáil said that there was a huge sense of shock and sadness as people woke up in Carrigaline on Christmas Eve morning to learn that pensioner, Sean Lynch, had died after a fire broke out at his house in The Court in Waterpark in the town last night.

“Sean was a long-term resident of Carrigaline and I knew the man well – I’m in Bridgemount, the next estate, so he lived near me and he was a familiar figure out walking his dog through Waterpark – he was a good man to get out and about even though he had got a bit feeble in recent years.

“I passed the house earlier there and it was clearly quite a severe fire to judge from the damage to the building – I was downtown earlier today, and it certainly has placed a pall of gloom over the town – nobody wants to see a life lost in such tragic circumstances.

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“Christmas is a special time of year but tragedies like this can be devastating, it’s shocking news for people to wake up to on Christmas Eve – I suppose it reminds us how fragile life is and how important it is to treasure what we have – my thoughts and sympathies are with his family.”

It’s understood that Mr Lynch lived in the house with his son, David (40) but the younger man had gone out to do some shopping and returned home to discover the family home engulfed in flames sometime after 9pm on Friday night.

Neighbours had raised the alarm and contacted the emergency services and four units of the fire city drawn from Cork County Fire Service in Carrigaline and Crosshaven and Cork City Fire Service responded and battled to bring the extensive blaze under control.

Firefighters used a hydraulic platform to fight the fire from a height as the blaze had spread throughout the building with flames emerging through the roof of the building, but they managed to prevent the fire from spreading to the adjacent attached home which had been evacuated.

Firefighters using breathing equipment entered the damaged building after the fire was brought under control and they recovered Mr Lynch’s body from a downstairs sittingroom and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr Lynch’s remains were later removed to Cork University Hospital where it’s understood that Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster will carry out a post-mortem to establish the exact cause of death.

Gardaí preserved the scene overnight once the firefighters made it safe and a garda technical team carried out a forensic examination which confirmed that there was nothing suspicious about the fire and that it started accidentally in a downstairs room.