A FIRE which claimed the life of an 88-year-old man in a house near Lauragh on the Beara peninsula was an accident, gardaí believe. Supt Michael Maher, who was at the scene yesterday, described it as a terrible tragedy for the man and his family.
The area had been preserved and Garda investigators were at work on the remains of the house.
The dead man had been a prolific pipe smoker and gardaí were examining the possibility that a lit pipe may have caused the fire.
They are also investigating the possibility of an electrical fault.
The alarm was raised at about 3am on Sunday by visitors staying at the house.
The man, who was Dutch, had been living in the area for decades and had extended family in the Kenmare area.
He was named locally as Robert Veget from Coolownig, on the Cork/Kerry border about five miles west of Lauragh. His daughter is married in the Kenmare area.
The detached bungalow where he had lived for up to 30 years was completely gutted by the flames and the roof had fallen in.
Two other occupants from the Netherlands who were friends of the dead man were woken by the fire.
After they ran out they they realised their friend was still in the house. The men tried desperately to get back in to rescue him, said Supt Maher of Killarney Garda station, but were beaten back by the intensity of the flames.
Gardaí in Kenmare were alerted and fire tenders from Kenmare, Cahersiveen and Sneem were called to the scene but the house was completely engulfed, Supt Maher said.
“This is a terrible tragedy,” he Maher said .
The coroner for Kerry South, Terence Casey had been notified and the man’s body removed to Kerry General Hospital where a postmortem was to be conducted last night.
Local area councillor Michael Healy-Rae said the sympathy of community was with the family of the dead man. He was a quiet, gentle man and the community was very saddened and shocked by the fire, he said.