Candle likely cause of fire that led to woman’s death

A FIRE that led to the death of an elderly woman was “most likely” caused by a candle or match which she lit during the night, an inquest has heard.

Ann (Nancy) Cumiskey, aged 81, of Llewellyn Close, Rathfarnham, Dublin, was overcome by smoke in a fire that broke out in her home on September 27, 2009.

Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard Ms Cumiskey’s son-in-law, Patrick Gorman, had turned off the electricity and had taken all the fuses out of the fuse board which resulted in no lights working in the house in the early hours of the morning following a conversation with his wife, Clare, about the ESB bill after he had returned home from the pub.