A father of five died in a house fire on the northside of Cork city yesterday. Cork City Fire Brigade was alerted at 4.40am to the fire in a terraced house in Roches Buildings, Blackpool and four units attended at the scene.
The victim was named locally as Ben Burke (55). His body was taken to Cork University Hospital where a postmortem examination was due to be carried out yesterday.
Mr Burke, who was originally from Dublin, was living alone in the house.
Members of his family live in other parts of Cork city.
Gardaí were yesterday treating the fire as accidental. The scene was sealed off as Garda technical experts were attempting to ascertain the cause of the fire. It is thought it may have been started by a discarded cigarette.
Gardaí believe the fire started downstairs with Mr Burke being overcome by smoke as he slept upstairs.
One of Mr Burke's neighbours, Teresa McCarthy, said that he would be sorely missed.
"It is terrible because he was a very nice man and very quiet. You couldn't say a bad word about him.
"He never interfered with anybody. I was very fond of him because I knew him all through the years. Only the downstairs was damaged, but it was the smoke that caught him."