By Vicki Weller
AN Athy family was lucky to escape with their lives after an early-morning fire gutted their home in a matter of minutes last Thursday morning.
The blaze, apparently caused by an electrical fault, struck the house on the Monasterevin Road near Kilberry at around 7am.
Smoke alarms were triggered which enabled the couple, three of their children and a visiting friend to get out just before the flames engulfed their home.
Declan Davis told the Kildare Nationalist that he and his wife Margaret had been asleep upstairs and their 15-month-old daughter Tilly was in the room with them. Also in the house were two of the couple’s other children, Marcella (8) and Ellie (9) along with their cousin Alyssa Whelan who was on a sleep over. The couple’s other two children were sleeping over at another friend’s house.
“Marcella actually helped the other two girls to get out the window. She was really great,” said Declan, adding that it was “really lucky” that the two other Davis children were not in the house as “she mightn’t have managed to get them all out on time”.
He also stressed the importance of the smoke alarms, saying simply: “Without the alarms, we would all have been stone dead.” While he and his wife managed to escape down the stairs with the baby, they were horrified to see how rapidly the staircase was overtaken by flames. “It was gone in about five minutes, just unbelievable.”
Now Declan and Margaret are coming to terms with the loss of their home, while the family members stay with friends and relatives as they try to piece their lives back together.
“It was an 80-year-old, two-storey house and literally everything has gone with it. I got out wearing a tracksuit and a pair of runners and the children were just in their pyjamas. Everything else went,” said Declan, noting that it was “a really frightening experience” especially as it was dark and the weather conditions outside were very bad. “Margaret is still very shocked and upset. It was a terrible thing to go through,” said Declan.
He continued: “It was pitch black and even though it was around 7o’clock in the morning, I thought it was the middle of the night when I was woken up with the smoke alarm going off, and there was rain and a howling wind outside.”
While the family has suffered huge losses as a result of the fire, Declan and Margaret were already trying, 24 hours later, to resolve one issue on behalf of their children. Saying that all of the toys that Santa brought were burned in the fire, he added that family members were doing their best to ensure that Santa replaced the toys lost in the fire.
Declan said that relatives and friends had so far been “terrific” in helping them out with clothing and other goods.
Meanwhile, he remarked that members of the fire brigade who attended the scene had praised Marcella’s speed and courage in getting her sister and cousin out of the house.
“There may be a little presentation to her in the future and we would also consider going to the school and talking about what happened, and especially the importance of having smoke alarms,” Declan concluded.
His words were echoed by Co Kildare Chief Fire Officer Celina Barrett, who commented: “People try to visualise a fire and they see flames but what actually kills people is the smoke and a working fire alarm gives people a chance to get out of the house safely.”
Pointing out that smoke alarms can be purchased from various outlets, including supermarkets, for as little as €10, and take just a few minutes to attach to the ceiling, she added that every home should have a smoke alarm on each floor, attached to a central point of the ceiling, rather than to a wall.
“If you are asleep, you will not smell the smoke and you will be overcome by the gases that the fire produces. That’s why we recommend that every family home has smoke alarms fitted and that they are checked every week,” said Ms Barrett.