GARDAÍ WERE yesterday trying to identify the body of a man in his 40s who was killed in a house fire in Dalkey, Co Dublin.
The fire broke out at a derelict house on Ulverton Road shortly before midnight on Tuesday.
Emergency services, including several units of the fire brigade, were alerted and brought the fire under control a short time later.
A body was discovered during an examination of the house following the blaze.
Gardaí do not believe the fire was suspicious. One line of inquiry being pursued by gardaí is that he was staying at the house intermittently in recent weeks.
The scene was preserved for a technical examination. The State Pathologist attended the scene and the body was removed to St Columcille’s Hospital Loughlinstown where a postmortem will be carried out.
The three-bedroom period house near Bulloch Harbour is on over half an acre. It was purchased for development purposes for over €4 million in 2006. The 1920s residence was described as being in complete need of renovation when it was sold.
Permission was granted by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and An Bord Pleanála in 2007 to demolish the house and to build two detached houses with separate entrances on the site. However, this planned development had not yet started.
The house had been vacant in the past few years.