Team of engineers examines hotel’s heating system

EXPERT engineers have examined the Trident Hotel in Kinsale, Co Cork, as part of the Garda investigation into the death of a Limerick woman there at the weekend.

The British team’s assistance was sought by gardaí as they continue their detailed investigation into the death of Miriam Reidy, 35, from Ballyhahill, in west Limerick, who died in her hotel room from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning on Sunday.

The hotel remains closed as the investigation continues.

The engineers spent some time examining the hotel’s LPG-fuelled gas powered heating system, and pipes leading from it.

Several large gas storage tanks are located in a yard close to the hotel room where Ms Reidy died at about 2pm on Sunday.

The hotel room she was sharing with her sister, Patricia, is located over an archway which leads to the tanks.

Several pipes attached to the roof of the archway run along the external wall of the hotel wing where the Reidy sisters were staying.

The engineers also used gas monitoring equipment during their examination of the room where Ms Reidy died.

A postmortem conducted on Monday proved inconclusive.

Gardaí are awaiting the outcome of toxicology tests before the cause of death can be determined.

The outcome of these tests, combined with the results of the engineers’ examination, will form a crucial part of the Garda probe.

Patricia has been taken off a ventilator and is in a stable condition in Cork University Hospital (CUH).

Meanwhile, the HSE confirmed yesterday that two HSE ambulances attended the Trident Hotel on Saturday.

One ambulance was requested at 9.11pm when a female guest, who was staying with her boyfriend in a hotel room near the Reidys, suffered dizziness and collapsed.

She came around within minutes and refused to leave in the ambulance.

But she felt unwell later and collapsed again.

An on-call SouthDoc doctor attended and requested a second ambulance at 11.30pm.

The woman was transferred to CUH about 12.56am on Sunday morning.

SouthDoc declined to comment last night on this incident, or on reports that Ms Reidy had also sought medical attention a few hour later, and just hours before she died.

SouthDoc’s medical director, Dr Gary Stack, said he could not comment out of respect for patients’ confidentiality.

He said SouthDoc has compiled reports on its response to incidents at the hotel at the weekend and is co-operating fully with the Garda investigation.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is released as a by-product of burning gas or solid fuel.

It becomes hazardous if it leaks into occupied areas of a building commonly caused by damaged or blocked flues and/or malfunctioning devices.

Michael Guinee, the managing director of Ei Electronics in Co Clare, a company which makes CO alarms, said the tragedy highlights the dangers of what he called a “silent killer”.

“Symptoms of carbon monoxide are often missed by GPs as the symptoms of low level poisoning are similar to those of influenza — nausea, headache, breathlessness etc,” he said.

Medical experts also say that the early stages of CO poisoning can also be mistaken as gastroenteritis.