Woman tells court of blaze rescue

A WOMAN who told the High Court yesterday she had rescued three of her children from her burning home has begun an action for damages against Dublin City Council.

The court was told the house was burned out because of a fire that allegedly started because of an electrical fault.

Rita Deane, with an address at Cremona Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin, told the court that in 1992, the council carried out the installation and rewiring of her home. After that she experienced loss of lighting and electricity and despite complaints to the council she continued to experience electrical problems.

The hearing before Mr Justice Iarfhaliath O Neill resumes next Tuesday and is dealing with the liability issue first before moving onto to other aspects of the case.

She said that on the night of July 22, 1996, she had put her children to bed when she heard a scream coming from upstairs. It was her 17-year-old daughter, Leslie, and there was smoke seeping into her room.

Ms Deane said she made her way into the bedroom where four of her children were sleeping. One of them Donna, 15, managed to jump from her bunk while Ms Deane grabbed two of her daughters Grace, 4, and Rosemary, 5, and came down the stairs with the children by the hair. She went back into the inferno to get her one-year-old son, Aaron, from the same room and brought him to safety.

She said there had been no problem with the house prior to the rewiring. Within a couple of days of it being done she noticed the lights downstairs would go out regularly on most days.

Cross-examined by Patricia Dillon SC, for the council, Ms Deane agreed that she had applied to purchase the house in 1992 under a tenant purchase deal for €7,000 and agreed that in 1994 she had agreed with the council that the future repairs and maintenance would be her responsibility.

The council denies any breach of duty or negligence and say the fire occurred in circumstances outside of the council’s control and was not due to any defect in the wiring as alleged.