Fire alarm not functioning in building where father and son died, inquest hears

A detective sergeant who arrived at the scene of a fatal fire which claimed the lives of a father and son in Sligo town in April 2017, said that until the fire crew found the casualties, gardaí had thought all the occupants had got out safely.

"We thought at that stage that everyone was safe so it was a shock to us when the first body arrived out," Sergeant Gerard Mullaney recalled.

The jury at Sligo coroner’s court heard on Monday that six people including a woman in an adjoining building, escaped the fire which started in a first floor apartment at 25 Market Street in the early hours of Saturday April 22nd, 2017.

The two men who died, Christopher (Sunny) Harte (63) and his son Sean Harte (34) had been in a second floor apartment directly above the one where the fire started, coroner Eamon MacGowan was told.

The father and son had their arms around each other when they were found together unresponsive lying in the doorway of Sean Harte’s apartment. He had been renting it since July 2016, and was due to move out that weekend.

The jury was shown CCTV footage compiled by Garda Mark Irwin showing a pair of feet descending onto a flat roof of the building and entering a window of apartment B, where the fire started. A minute later at 4.45am the feet re-appeared and went back up out of camera shot.

The coroner pointed out that seven minutes later the fire can be seen flickering on the CCTV and he asked “did that person start the fire?”. Garda Irwin said he could not comment on that.

Two people, a man and a woman who were trapped on the roof of an adjoining building when gardaí arrived were rescued by officers who used a ladder to bring them to safety. A woman was rescued from an apartment next door .

Sgt Mullaney described how he and two colleagues were on duty in the patrol car in Pearse road, Sligo when they saw smoke coming from the town centre. They drove in the direction of High Street in an effort to locate the source.

He said gardaí located a ladder in the laneway between 24 and 25 Market Street and used it to bring the two people on the roof to safety.The witness said the two floors of the building were engulfed by flames.

When the fire crews entered the building they located the two causalities and carried them outside.

Ciaran Tansey, solicitor for the family, put to a number of witnesses that there was no alarm, no vents to allow smoke escape and no map of the building to assist rescue personnel.

The jury heard there was a fire alarm which was not functioning in the building.

The inquest heard the door had been open in apartment B which had been vacated by a previous tenant on April 10th.

Mary Henry, an auctioneer, said her company was the letting agent for the building but were not block managers so were not responsible for the common areas such as halls.

She said her company had put in fire extinguishers, fire blankets and smoke detectors into the individual apartments which were rented out. The detectors were checked every six to eight weeks.

She said she did not believe there were fire extinguishers in the hall as “they kept getting let off and stolen”.

At they time of the fire the property was in the hands of a receiver, she said.

The inquest continues on Tuesday.