Man arrested after woman and child die in Cork fire

Gardaí investigating the cause of a fire in Cork which claimed the lives of two people have arrested a man for questioning.

The 22-year-old man was arrested in the Mahon area of Cork city shortly after 12.30pm for questioning about the suspected arson attack in Nutley Grove.

A 25-year-old woman and her five-year-old nephew died in the blaze which broke out in the two story house at around 3am this morning.

The deceased have been named locally as Helena O'Dwyer and her nephew, Ryan O'Dwyer.

It¹s understood that the woman and her nephew were asleep upstairs when fire broke out downstairs in the end of terrace house.

The woman's parents and her sister along with her own child and two other children were also in the house at the time.

All eight were rushed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where the woman and her nephew were pronounced dead.

The other six casualties were being treated for smoke inhalation but it's not thought that any of their injuries are life threatening.

Several units of Cork City Fire Brigade attended at the scene and brought the fire under control.

Firefighters later handed over the building to gardai and garda technical experts began a forensic examination of the scene.

Gardaí also requested the services of the State Pathologist¹s Office and State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy is on her way to Cork.

It's expected that she will commence post-mortems on the two deceased at Cork University Hospital this afternoon.

Meanwhile Gardaí have also begun door to door inquiries and begun examining CCTV footage from commercial premises in the area.

Neighbours in the quiet local authority owned cul de-sac estate in the heart of Mahon expressed shock and sadness at the tragedy.

"You don¹t expect wake up on Easter Sunday to hear news of something like this happening on your doorstep ­ it¹s shocking," said one.