A 79-year-old man who died attempting to put out a fire that had spread to a section of bog adjoining his own was carrying out an "act of neighbourliness", an inquest in Castlebar, Co Mayo, heard yesterday.
Mr Hubert O'Reilly, from Carrownedan, Tulrahan, Claremorris, Co Mayo, died on May 3rd this year after being overcome by smoke in a fire on the bog.
A verdict of accidental death, secondary to asphyxia due to inhalation of fire fumes caused by a bog fire, was returned by the coroner at the inquest.
Mr Henry O'Reilly (81), a brother of the dead man, recalled how he and his brother went to shake bog manure in a field near their bog.
They decided to burn the heather and grass and to cut turf later. It was a very dry afternoon and the wind was coming from the east.
They lit the bog with a cigarette lighter and it took about half-an-hour to burn.
At about 5 p.m. the wind changed and sent flames in the opposite direction into the bog over the bank.
Hubert O'Reilly went across with a shovel and tried to dampen the flames but was overcome by fumes and his body was burnt.
Dr Malcolm Little, a pathologist at University College Hospital, Galway, who carried out an autopsy, said Mr O'Reilly's body was extensively burnt.
There was no evidence of internal disease and Mr O'Reilly had been in excellent condition for a person of his age. He found he had inhaled soot and carbon monoxide and that death was due to asphyxia due to inhalation. Mr O'Reilly, he said, had been overcome by fumes before being burned.
Mr John O'Dwyer, coroner for South Mayo, said that in an act of neighbourliness Mr O'Reilly tried to put out the flames on the neighbouring bog but was unable to do so. He extended sympathy to Mr O'Reilly's two surviving brothers.
"It is commendable, despite his age, that Henry managed to stay with the deceased. He didn't abandon his brother in a great time of need," the coroner said.
He said it was traditional to burn bog in this fashion but that there had been other fatalities of this kind.