Girl’s frantic 999 call before she and family killed in blaze

A TERRIFIED schoolgirl made a frantic 999 call moments before she died along with six other family members in a house fire started by her father, an inquest has heard.

Caroline McGovern, 13, screamed “Help me” and “I’m burning ... run” as she gasped for breath in her burning home in Omagh, Co Tyrone.

Her heavy drinking, depressive father, 36-year-old Arthur McElhill, killed himself, his partner, Lorraine McGovern, 29, and their five children when he doused their house with petrol and torched it in November 2007. The farm labourer, who had a history of suicide attempts and was twice found guilty of sex attacks on teenage girls, is believed to have started the blaze after Ms McGovern threatened to leave him.