A SWORDS, Co Dublin mother saved her three children from a house fire by lowering them out of an upstairs window with bed sheets. The woman was then rescued by gardaí who used a ladder to reach her in the back bedroom.
Firefighters said the family had less than a minute to live if the mother, who is in her late 20s, had not got her children, aged 10, four and one, out of the blaze.
The fire broke out in the house at Hilltown Close, Rivervalley, Swords, at about 4.15am yesterday. All four were taken to Temple Street Children’s Hospital where they were treated for smoke inhalation.
The woman’s partner, who had been out for the night, rushed home after a telephone call from her. He kicked in the front door, but was beaten back by flames.
The children were saved before gardaí arrived. Overpowered by the smoke and heat they were unable to enter but used a neighbour’s ladder to reach the woman and pull her to safety.
The house was destroyed in the blaze, which is believed to have been started accidentally, either through an electrical fault or from an unguarded fire. Peter Higgins, station officer at Swords, said the mother discovered the fire in the sittingroom and ran back up to the bedroom to her children, but left the sittingroom door open and the fire took off.
Meanwhile, in the early hours of yesterday morning six people escaped when fire broke out at a house in Togher, Cork city. Three units of Cork City Fire Brigade were called to the house in Blackwater Grove. The six, an adult and five teenagers, were taken to Cork University Hospital where they were treated for smoke inhalation.