Mother, father and son died of carbon poisoning in fire

THREE members of a family died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to smoke inhalation, following a fire in their two-storey farmhouse at Annagh, Castlemaine, Co Kerry, assistant state pathologist Dr Margot Bolster told an inquest in Tralee, yesterday.

The bodies of John Daly, aged 66, and his wife, Mary, aged 57, were found upstairs and that of their son, Shane, aged 24, in the kitchen downstairs, at 9.15am, on September 22, 2002, the morning of the Kerry/Armagh All-Ireland football final.

Dr Bolster, who carried out the post mortems, said the bodies were very extensively charred and dental records were used for identification. Shane Daly was found to have a concentration of 216mgs of ethanol in his blood.

The couple’s daughter, Margaret, gave evidence of dental records and Coroner Helen Lucey said identification would otherwise have been very difficult, or next to impossible.

A jury accepted the coroner’s recommendation to return a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence. All the deceased were found to have carbon monoxide saturation well over 50%, which was fatal at that level.

Garda James Murphy, a scene of crime examiner, said the cause of the fire was accidental. When he arrived, the house was in an advanced state of burning.

The fire brigade was there and the bodies were removed from the house and taken by ambulance to Tralee General Hospital.

Sympathy was extended to the bereaved family by the coroner, Garda Superintendent Pat Sullivan and jury foreman Danny Leane.

The Daly family’s solicitor, Liam Crowley, thanked neighbours and friends for their support and their Christian endeavour at a time of an appalling tragedy. “To lose one’s father, mother and brother in the same incident - words fail us all. But life must continue, the family are having a home rebuilt adjacent to the site,” he said.