No charges after fatal fire

The DPP has directed that there be no criminal proceedings in relation to a Halloween house fire which claimed the lives of two young brothers in Cork last year.

Sergeant Ray Dunne told Cork City Coroner’s Court yesterday that the DPP’s office has concluded its examination of the Garda file in relation to the blaze in Wilton last October bank holiday weekend.

He told city coroner Dr Myra Cullinane that no criminal proceedings will arise from the deaths.

It is believed the fire started accidentally in the downstairs kitchen of the rented mid-terrace house.

The decision now clears the way for a full hearing of a joint inquest into the deaths of Calvin Ellard Punch, aged four, and his two-year-old brother Cian on Jan 24, 2013.

Firefighters rescued the boys and their critically ill mother, Stacey, from their smoke-filled house at Elm Park, just off the Sarsfield Rd, at around 4am on the Sunday of last year’s October bank holiday weekend.

Cian was rushed to Cork University Hospital (CUH) where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

Dr Margot Bolster, the assistant state pathologist, told the previously adjourned inquest in April that an autopsy had confirmed Cian died from acute carbon monoxide poisoning due to smoke inhalation from a house fire.

Firefighters and para-medics performed CPR on both Calvin and his mother on the footpath outside their home in a bid to save their lives, before they were rushed to CUH.

Calvin battled to survive but tragically lost his brave fight for life in the hospital’s intensive care unit a few days later, on Nov 2.

Dr Bolster said an autopsy showed the boy died from hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy — when the brain is starved of oxygen — due to smoke inhalation from a house fire.

The boys’ mother, Stacey, made a full recovery from her physical injuries.