Gardaí treat fire that killed girl, 5, as suspicious
The house at Termon Road has been sealed off as crime scene examiners carry out forensic checks following the fire which broke out between 2.30am and 3am yesterday.
The body of Marie Keane-Connolly, 5, was discovered in an upstairs bedroom of the two-storey terraced house.
The child’s father Richard Connolly Jr, who is understood to be in his late 20s, and two other children escaped from the house. They were taken to Sligo General Hospital.
Mr Connolly jumped from an upstairs bedroom window with two of his daughters when flames engulfed the house. He was unable to rescue Marie, who died in the fire.
Mr Connolly was taken to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin with back injuries and a punctured lung.
The two other girls, Lauren, 6, and Naomi, 8, were treated for smoke inhalation and shock at Sligo General Hospital.
Marie was in senior infants in Scoil na nAingeal Naofa. School principal John McLoughlin described her as “angelic” and noted that she had a “very pleasant and outgoing personality”.
Two psychologists from the Department of Education were sent to the school to give advice to teachers in dealing with the news for pupils.
The child’s mother is understood to have given birth to twin girls over the weekend and is still in Sligo General Hospital.
Locals said Marie and her two sisters “were all dressed up” on Sunday when they went to visit their mother and the newborn twins in Sligo hospital.
The Deputy State Pathologist Khailid Jaber was due to carry out a postmortem examination on the body of the deceased girl at Sligo General Hospital last night.
Gardaí are appealing for anyone who was in the Termon Road area of Boyle or anyone with any information to contact the incident room at Boyle Garda Station on 071 9664620.
Norbert Ferguson, the assistant chief fire officer, said fire officers had to enter the upstairs part of the house via a ladder at the front of the building.
“The back part of the upstairs floor was gone as well as the stairs and the building was sagging — it was very dangerous — we also had to make sure that the fire didn’t spread to the other adjoining houses.
“The information we had was that the casualty was on the first floor of the house and it took some time for us to get into that area as it was very dangerous,” said Mr Ferguson.
The house was sealed off pending a technical examination. The body of the child remained in the house until the crime scene examiners finished their investigation.
