An autistic boy who died in a house fire in Galway was found at the foot of his mother's bed by firefighters using thermal imaging equipment, an inquest into his death heard.
Galway west coroner Dr Ciarán McLoughlin returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence that John Daly (12), Laurel Park, Newcastle, died from asphyxia due to carbon monoxide and cyanide poisoning.
John had moved to Galway with his mother Paula and 10- year-old sister, Martina, only a few weeks before the fire broke out at their rented house on July 30th this year.
The inquest heard how two neighbours raised the alarm after they returned home to find smoke in their own house. They found Ms Daly sitting on the stairs of her house crying and got her out.
Neighbour Maurice O'Malley and a friend, Eli Rossi, spotted a silhouette through an upstairs window and managed to get Martina out of the house.
She told them her brother John was still upstairs but at this stage the smoke was so thick and there were flames upstairs and in the kitchen that it was impossible for the neighbours to get back upstairs.
When firefighters arrived they concentrated on the front bedroom, which was shared by the children, but the boy had gone into his mother's bedroom at the back of the house.
Neither Ms Daly nor her daughter were at the inquest, but Insp Pat McHugh read their statements in their absence.
Ms Daly said she and her friend, Dean Carrier from Limerick, had consumed up to eight cans of Heineken and a bottle of vodka between them before having a row which led to him leaving the house. She said she had been treated in rehab for her alcoholism and was separated from her husband. She described her son's death as a tragic accident.
Martina said she and her brother shared a room and were upstairs playing with two new kittens after watching some telly and playing on their X Box.
She woke up hours later coughing and smelled smoke. When John woke up he asked what was up and went to check on his mother. Some time later she saw John being brought out on a stretcher and his skin was peeling.
Geraldine Doherty, a trained forensic garda based in Galway, told the inquest that the fire had more than likely started in the back bedroom, as that was where the most smoke damage was. She also found cigarette butts and a broken ashtray.
Pat Daly told the inquest that he had separated from his wife in 1999 and that her drinking seemed to have been curtailed following treatment. She had lost her driver's licence and a previous house in Mallow had gone on fire on Christmas Eve in 2004 when her Christmas lights went on fire.
Dr John O'Callaghan, consultant pathologist at UCHG, said that the boy had died in a house fire in the early hours of July 30th and that a postmortem showed a very high level of carbon monoxide and cyanide in his body.
Dr McLoughlin praised the prompt response of both Mr O'Malley and Mr Rossi, saying he was heartened that young people would risk their lives to save a child.