ESTABLISHING THE exact cause of the fire on board a motor cruiser which led to the deaths of three friends on an angling trip in Bantry Bay is expected to take several months.
Inspectors from the Marine Casualty Investigation Board travelled to Adrigole in west Cork yesterday to view the location of the tragedy, which claimed the lives of local residents Richard Harman (69), Wolfgang “Mike” Schmidt (70) and Wolfgang Schröder (62).
All three were dead when taken from the water after fire broke out on Mr Schmidt's 25-foot motor cruiser, Castaway, some time after 5pm on Monday while fishing with their friend, American Ed Dziato (46), 2.8 miles south of Roancarrig Lighthouse off Adrigole in Bantry Bay.
A spokeswoman for the board said it may take several months for inspectors to complete their report into the tragedy, which has shocked local communities in Glengarriff and Bantry where the three deceased lived.
Inspectors were yesterday carrying out a preliminary assessment of the feasibility of raising the remains of the Castaway, believed to be resting in less than 50m of water after sinking.
Gardaí under Supt John Quilter of Bantry Garda station have begun a separate investigation into the deaths with a view to preparing a file on the matter for inquests at the coroner’s court.
Pathologist Dr Declan Gilsenan carried out postmortems on the bodies of the three deceased at Cork University Hospital yesterday, but it may take several weeks to establish the exact causes of death in each case as gardaí must await the results of toxicology tests.
It has been learned that all three deceased did not suffer any burn injuries, had not been overcome by fumes and were conscious when they evacuated the burning vessel with Mr Dziato.
It is understood that the four noticed a smell of smoke coming from a console behind the steering wheel. When they examined it, they discovered some electrical wiring was burning and fire quickly spread, causing the fibreglass vessel to catch alight.
Attempts to quench the blaze with a fire extinguisher proved unsuccessful. When the heat became unbearable on board the burning vessel all four men decided to enter the water, but the fire prevented them accessing the lifejackets, stored below.
All four men climbed down the stern of the vessel to enter the water and initially remained close to it, but were then forced to move farther away from the burning hulk when the heat became too intense.
Both Mr Schmidt and Mr Schröder were experienced seamen, but none of the four was able to send a Mayday distress signal because of the fire. The alarm was raised instead by a person on the shore near Adrigole who spotted the blaze and dialled emergency services on 999.
The person asked for the fire services and was put through to the Regional Fire Control Centre in Limerick, but when they realised the emergency was at sea, the call was transferred to the Irish Coast Guard Centre in Valentia and a full sea rescue mission was launched.
An Irish Coast Guard helicopter from Waterford was in Castletownbere at the time and was quickly on the scene, and its crew winched all four casualties aboard.
Mr Dziato was brought by ambulance to Bantry General Hospital for treatment for minor injuries. He was later discharged and was yesterday recovering at his home at Furkeal, just outside Glengarriff, where he spoke to gardaí about what had happened.
While there had been some speculation that a gas cylinder may have exploded on the vessel, gardaí are satisfied that there was no explosion – but rather that the blaze spread very quickly as the fibreglass melted and burned.
Mr Harman, who is survived by his sons, Willie and Richard, will be removed from Coakley’s Funeral Home in Bantry to St Brendan’s Church of Ireland in the Square at 7pm on Thursday, and will be buried at Adrigole Old Cemetery following a funeral service at 2pm on Friday.
Funeral arrangements have yet to be finalised for Mr Schmidt, originally from Husum in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, but who had lived at Furkeal with his wife, Rosina, who survives him along with his mother Magda and brother Werner.
Funeral arrangements have similarly to be finalised for Mr Schröder, who was from Hitzacker in Lower Saxony, Germany. He is survived by his wife, Christine, with whom he lived at Dromleigh South in Bantry, and by his brother Rainer and sister Gisela.