A NUMBER of accidents and one fatal road crash have left four men dead over the weekend while a 22-year-old Irish emigrant in Australia lost his life in a fire believed to have been caused by a gas explosion.
In Dublin a man in his 20s died after a fire started in his apartment in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Four other men, also in the house at the time, were rescued from the blaze by gardaí after a patrol spotted smoke coming from the building on St Joseph’s Avenue off the Clonliffe Road in Drumcondra at about 4.30am.
The officers broke into the property and while they managed to safely bring four of the occupants outside, they could not reach the fifth individual who was in an upstairs apartment where he died before the fire brigade could get the blaze under control.
Gardaí are trying to establish the exact cause of the fire.
On Saturday, a father of five was killed in a freak accident in Co Donegal after a tree he was helping his brother to cut down fell on him.
Danny Gallagher (47), an ESB employee, was killed instantly after he was crushed by the 25ft tree at his brother’s home in Doon Well outside the village of Termon.
The tree, which his brother was pulling with a tractor and rope, appears to have fallen on Mr Gallagher after it changed direction while falling. Mr Gallagher was pronounced dead at the scene.
His wife and five children, who range in age from two to 19 years, were being comforted by the local community yesterday.
Gardaí investigating the incident said it appeared to be a tragic accident. “It appears that the tree changed direction and despite his attempts to avoid the falling tree, Danny was struck,” a spokesman for Milford Garda station said.
“There was nothing anybody could do. It’s just a terrible tragedy.”
Also on Saturday, an eastern European man living in the southwest died after he was thrown overboard from a six-foot dinghy while fishing off Co Clare.
The incident occurred close to Donegal Point about 6km north of Kilkee.
An alarm was raised at about 2pm when a man on the shore reported seeing the fisherman in difficulty in the water.
While the casualty was quickly recovered from the water, it is understood he was unconscious by then and died a short time later.
Meanwhile on Saturday, the search for a Finnish man swept into the sea at Cloghmore, Achill Island, Co Mayo, on Thursday ended when his body was found by members of the Achill Coast Guard unit.
Markus Salumi Niemenin, a 23-year-old exchange student studying at Waterford Institute of Technology, was swept into the sea by a large wave while taking pictures along the scenic area of coast known as the Atlantic Drive.
In Wicklow yesterday, a man aged in his 30s lost his life after the motorcycle he was driving crashed into a ditch at about 10.30am.
The man was taken by ambulance from the Wicklow Gap, where the crash occurred, to Loughlinstown Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Also at the weekend, a 22-year-old Roscommon man, who emigrated to Australia only six weeks ago, died in a fire on a private farm, the Mackie Hay Plant, which employs overseas workers who live on-site during the hay-cutting season.
Kieran Tynan, the eldest of a family of four from Lisacul, Castlerea, was the only occupant of a kitchenette which was consumed by flames in the town of New Norcia, about 130km north of Perth, early on Saturday morning.
Initial indications from the forensic investigation suggested a gas bottle had exploded in the kitchenette, where the victim had been sleeping.