Gardaí treat fatal house blaze as suspicious

GARDAÍ ARE treating as suspicious the death of a pensioner in a house fire in Newbridge, Co Kildare, in the early hours yesterday.

The 81-year-old man, named locally as Michael Crowe, was at home with his wife and son in the Páirc Mhuire Estate when the fire broke out at about 6am.

It is understood that a brick or other heavy object was thrown through the front window of the house at about 2am, some hours before the fire broke out.

Neighbours alerted emergency services to the blaze at 6.07am. Four fire brigade units, two from Newbridge and two from Naas, took almost three hours to bring the fire under control. All three occupants of the house were taken to Naas General Hospital, where Mr Crowe died a short time later.

His wife Betty, in her early 70s, and son Thomas, in his late 40s, remained in hospital yesterday and were described last night as in a stable condition.

Gardaí preserved the scene for technical examination yesterday and said they were treating the fire as suspicious.

They made no comment in relation to the suspected cause of the fire, but appealed for witnesses.

They have asked anyone who was in the Páirc Mhuire Estate between midnight on Saturday and 6am on Sunday, and may have seen anyone behaving suspiciously, to contact Newbridge Garda station or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111.

The three-bed semi-detached house is one of 270 in the Páirc Mhuire Estate built by Kildare County Council in the early 1950s.

A large majority of council tenants have since bought out their houses from the council and there is a large elderly population in the estate, many of whom have lived there since the houses were built.

Local Independent councillor Paddy Kennedy, who lives in the estate, said the area had always been very quiet and there had been no recent disturbances.

“This is a very settled area, with great neighbours who care about each other. There is never any trouble, and something as terrible as this, causing such an awful tragedy, would be completely out of character with the area,” he said.