Fire protection was ‘shambolic’ where father and son died, says coroner

Fire protection was “shambolic” in an apartment building which was engulfed in a fire that claimed the lives of a father and son, according to the coroner presiding over their inquest.

Eamon MacGowan said there was “no doubt” that the men would not have died if there was a fire alarm in the property.

A jury returned a verdict of accidental death in the case of both Christopher (Sunny) Harte (63) and his son Sean (34) who died after collapsing in the doorway of their apartment at 25 Market Street, Sligo on April 22nd, 2017.

Speaking at the close of the three-day inquest, Mr MacGowan said “there was no protection there for anybody” .

The jury had been told there had been no power to the fire alarm for a number of years, there were no exit direction signs in the building and the doors to the individual apartments were not certified fire doors.

The jury called for “robust measures” to be put in place to ensure property owners and managers complied with all fire safety legislation and regulations.

Shelly Harte, who lost her father and brother in the fire, told the coroner she has had sleepless nights since the tragedy but the family had tried to keep going.

She said the deaths had left a hole as the two men were such characters and were well-loved around the town. “Everybody knew them from their outgoing nature”.

Another family member speaking from the public gallery told the coroner they wanted answers “just so that this does not happen again”.

The jury was given details of the postmortem carried out by pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan who found both men died from inhalation of smoke and gas fumes. Toxicology results indicated recent cocaine use in the case of both men.

Gerry O’Malley Sligo’s chief fire officer at the time of the tragedy, pointed out in a report after the fire that Henry Auctioneers, a local firm, who were described as letting agents, had maintained they did not have management responsibility for the premises . He said that as all efforts to contact the landlords had failed there was no evidence available to the fire service to demonstrate that fire safety was being managed in the building.

The jury heard the building was owned by Santos and Surlnder Singh who are based in Birmingham and that Mrs Singh had sometimes stayed in the ground floor apartment in the building.

Sean Monaghan who worked for Henry’s told the inquest that if repairs were needed in the building, Mrs Singh was informed and she would get someone to do the work.

Mary Henry, his employer, told the inquest her company was the letting agents but the landlord did not pay them to manage the property.

In his submission, Ciarán Tansey solicitor for the Harte family said his experts had concluded the fire was caused by an electrical appliance, possibly a dehumidifier given evidence of dampness and the fact the door was open in the apartment where the fire started.

He said one witness had noted a burning smell from as early as midnight that night and in fact had mentioned it on the phone to his mother, while another tenant had noted what he described as an electrical smell.

The jury heard evidence that at 4.30am on the night of the fire Sean Harte sent a Snapchat message to a local man Shane Fallon asking: “Is there a party”. Mr Fallon recalled he was walking home a short time later when he saw smoke on Market Street and he messaged Sean Harte saying there was a fire near him. Sean Harte never opened that Snapchat, he said. Minutes later he saw two casualties being carried out by firefighters and he recognized Sean Harte.

The jury also recommended with regard to multi-occupancy residential properties that local authority reports include input from a suitably qualified fire safety officer. This would require a formal arrangement between housing and fire safety services “to share information and agree a protocol to ensure compliance with all fire safety regulations”, the jury said.

In his report, the chief fire officer had said the primary function of a fire detection and alarm system was to give an early warning of fire giving occupants increasing time to escape. It was “the first line of defence from fire in any premises”.

He also found that if the door of the apartment where the fire started - which witnesses said had been wide open for days - had been fitted with a self-closing device, and if there was a functioning fire alarm, “it is likely that the smoke and fire spread would have been delayed affording the occupants of remainder of the building sufficient time to evacuate safely”.