A MOTHER and her two-year-old child were fighting for their lives yesterday following a fire that hospitalised nine people in Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
Two gardaí, a neighbour and six occupants of a house were treated in hospital after a fire broke out at the home of Sharon Gahan (30) and Anthony Maloney (31) in Mullingar.
The couple were in bed when their daughter Kelly (13) noticed smoke in their corner house in Grange Crescent in the town at around 2am.
Assisted by neighbours, the couple managed to escape through a rear upstairs bedroom window, along with three of their four daughters, Kelly, Molly (7) and Sophie (6).
Their youngest child, two-year-old Maddie – who underwent open heart surgery last May for a cardiac condition – hid under her cot when the fire broke out. She was rescued some time later when a garda went into the house without a respirator in a bid to locate her.
Neighbours battled the blaze with a garden hose and managed to get all of the family members out except Maddie.
Berty Crichton (28) went to the rear of the house and stood on the shoulders of Ray Charles and Darren Farrell. “I stretched in and grabbed them and pulled them out,” he said.
When the parents and three children were out, Mr Crichton made five attempts to get Maddie from inside the house. “I got into the bedroom after that and just had to back out,” he said. “I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t see, not a thing.”
Maddie was later rescued by a garda and taken straight to a waiting ambulance. She was taken to the Midland Regional Hospital at Mullingar before transfer to Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, where she remained in a serious condition yesterday.
A medical team travelled in the ambulance with Maddie to Dublin but there was no room for Mr Maloney. He refused treatment at Mullingar and drove to Dublin where he later received medical attention in St James’s Hospital.
A close family member of Mr Maloney’s said all of her family were in complete shock. She said Mr Maloney “is just in shock and he can’t believe it because they have never done anything wrong”.
“Fair play to all the neighbours up there, they all ran up and only for them they’d have been arranging coffins now,” the woman said.
“Maddie, she’s on a life-support machine at the moment now because a lot of smoke is after going into her lungs,” she added.
While gardaí are still investigating the cause of the fire, some residents suspect clothes bags left at the front door for collection may have been the source of the fire.
Supt John Gantly has appealed for information. He said gardaí had conducted door-to-door inquiries and a forensic examination of the scene. It is understood CCTV footage from a neighbour’s house is also being examined.
Ms Gahan remained in a serious condition at Mullingar hospital yesterday. Sophie, Molly and Kelly were also receiving treatment at the hospital.