Gardaí believe a fire that killed a young couple in Co Kildare early yesterday morning started in the kitchen of their home. The couple were the parents of two little boys, aged three years and eight weeks.
Darren Hanly (23) and Amanda Murphy (21) died after fire engulfed the house on McMurrough Hill in the Curragh Camp shortly after 3am.
The alarm was raised by a passer-by at 3.15am when he saw flames coming from the house in the centre of the military camp.
He alerted staff in the military police station across the road from the house, and they contacted the Curragh fire service.
A unit was sent from the fire station located just 200 yards from the house and it was joined by two other units from Newbridge and Monasterevin fire stations.
The blaze was under control within an hour. However, it had spread rapidly throughout the house and rescue workers were unable to save the couple.
Both bodies were taken to the mortuary at Naas General Hospital where a postmortem will be carried out today to establish the cause of death.
Yesterday the semi-detached house was cordoned off for examination by members of the Garda technical bureau.
The investigation into the deaths is being led by Supt John Murphy of Newbridge Garda station, with the assistance of local military police.
Supt Murphy said they were examining a number of possibilities in relation to the cause of the fire.
"We are satisfied that the fire started in the kitchen," he said. "We don't think there was anything sinister involved." He said it had not yet been established whether or not there were smoke alarms in the house.
"This was a very serious fire and anything in the building made of plastic would have been destroyed," he said.
The couple's two children, Tiernan (3) and Keadon (eight weeks) were not in the house at the time of the blaze. They had been spending the night with their paternal grandparents. Ms Murphy's mother, who also lives at the house, was out for the night.
It is understood the blaze began some time after the couple had returned from a New Year's Eve party with friends.
Mr Hanly was in the Army for three years but had left to work in the building trade. Ms Murphy worked locally and was on maternity leave. The couple's baby son was due to be christened shortly at the nearby St Brigid's Church, the garrison church of the Defence Forces training centre.
They were well known in the community and both extended families had members in the Army.
The 60-year-old house, in a central location in the camp, was owned by the Defence Forces and rented to Ms Murphy's mother, whose husband was an officer in the Army.
Local priest Fr PJ McEvoy, who was called to the scene of the fire, said they were a lovely young couple. "The shock from this tragedy will be very widespread because for generations the Murphys and Hanlys have lived on the Curragh and been involved in the Defence Forces," he said.
"The community on the Curragh is very close-knit and certainly at tragic times like this they rally around families."
He said the military would be offering counselling to the extended family and emergency workers who fought the fire. A spokesman for the Defence Forces said the military fire service had responded within minutes of being called.