Singer devastated over mother’s death

HEARTBROKEN actress and jazz singer Honor Heffernan yesterday spoke of her family’s devastation following the tragic death of her mother and sister.

An inquest heard Bridget Heffernan, aged 76, and Fiona Heffernan, aged 39, died from acute carbon monoxide poisoning from prolonged use of a water heater in a poorly ventilated kitchen in their Dublin home last year.

Ms Heffernan said, after the inquest, her mother and sister Fiona were the centre of her and her family’s world.

She said that the family was not aware a gas-heated appliance was not safe.

“If we had any notion this was not safe,” she said, “ it would have been taken out and replaced with a much safer model, which was available for a long time, and all we have had to endure could have been avoided.”

Stuart Formby, a forensic scientist with expertise in the area, said the kitchen in the home at Kirwan Street Cottages in Stoneybatter was “inadequately ventilated but within standard” for the water heater.

The Dublin Coroner’s Court heard that, three years after the flueless heater was installed in 1996, an EU directive decided that this particular type of gas appliance would have to be supplied equipped with a safety device called an oxygen depletion switch. The mother and daughter were found dead in their home around 10.30am on October 23 last year. Bord Gáis said, at the time, that the gas supply was in accordance with relevant Irish standards and a natural gas leak was ruled out. Neighbours of the pair had described the Heffernan family as the nicest people you could ever meet. One neighbour said: “The Heffernan's lived here for more than 40 years and were known and loved by everybody.”

Mrs Heffernan had been involved in residents groups in the area. However, eighbours said that she and her daughter Fiona had been inseparable.