Gas blast: Father and three children critical

A FATHER and his young daughter were fighting for their lives last night after a gas explosion ripped through their south Dublin home.

The condition of two other children also seriously injured in the blast had stabilised.

Declan Corrigan of Glendoher Close, Rathfarnham, his son Adam and daughters Saoirse and Lara suffered serious fractures and burns in the accident, which occurred at around 10.45am yesterday. The injured children are aged eight, six and three.

Bord Gáis engineers said subsidence under a footpath, outside the Corrigan’s home, ruptured a gas mains distribution line. The gas leaked into the house through a manhole sewer system.

All four injured were in intensive care units last night, with the six-year-old girl and her father the most seriously injured. The little girl sustained head injuries.

Mr Corrigan’s wife, Sandra, miraculously escaped the blast uninjured.

Her seriously injured husband and children were initially admitted to Tallaght Hospital after the explosion but all four were later transferred to other hospitals in Dublin for specialist treatment.

Mr Corrigan was brought to St James, while his three children were being treated at Temple Street Children’s Hospital and Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.

Local residents yesterday told how they were stunned by the loud blast which rocked many homes in the quiet neighbourhood and partly demolished the Corrigan’s residence.

The fierce explosion blew the front door off the Keegan house, across the road, as well as shattering glass from the windows over a widespread area.

Fire broke out in the kitchen of the Corrigan’s home and quickly spread throughout the two-storey house. An upstairs bedroom and the roof of a neighbouring building were also damaged in the incident.

A Bord Gáis employee, who had just arrived in Glendoher Close following reports of a smell of gas in the area, narrowly avoided being struck by the flying debris.

A spokesperson for Bord Gáis said a preliminary examination suggested the source of the leaking gas came from the fractured mains.

She said it appeared the gas had leaked into the Corrigan’s home through a utility service.

Bord Gáis extended its sympathy to the Corrigan family and others and said a full investigation would be carried out to find the cause of the accident.

One neighbour, Paddy Clarke, said he heard children screaming out loudly shortly after hearing the massive bang.

“I thought all the windows were going to come in on top of me such was the force of the explosion,” said Mr Clarke. “I rushed out to see what happened and I could see the family were in a distraught condition.”

Ten nearby families were also forced to evacuate their homes for several hours as Bord Gáis engineers conducted a survey of the pipeline network to make the area safe.