'Help me, I'm burning' -- Caroline's tragic 999 call
Inquest opens into Omagh blaze deaths
The McElhill family house pictured after the fire in 2007. Photo: Niall Carson/ PA Wire/ Martin Nolan
Wednesday October 21 2009
"HELP ME . . . my eyes . . . I'm burning . . . Oh . . . run."
These were among the final tragic words uttered by courageous 13-year-old Caroline McElhill as flames engulfed her home, killing all seven members of her family in Omagh almost two years ago.
The schoolgirl's desperate attempts to alert the emergency services through a 999 call on her mobile phone were heard by families of the victims of the blaze for the first time at an inquest into their deaths yesterday.
But despite her courage and the valiant efforts of neighbours to rescue the family from the inferno, she died moments later clutching her mobile phone and a set of rosary beads.
Also killed in the blaze at the terraced house in Lammy Crescent on November 13, 2007, were her parents, Lorraine McGovern (29) and Arthur McElhill (37), Sean (7), Bellina (4), Clodagh (19 months) and James (10 months).
McElhill, a convicted sex offender, is suspected of starting the fire but the Northern Ireland Public Prosecution Service confirmed last year that there would be no prosecutions.
Gasped
In that final harrowing bid for help and choking on fumes, Caroline gasped the words "Omagh" and "Lammy Crescent" and then "he's k . . . us".
Despite extensive analysis, forensic speech consultant Professor Peter French told the inquest he was unable to determine the missing word.
Members of the McGovern and McElhill families, who sat separately in the hushed courtroom, wept openly during the six-minute recording of the 999 call which had been played to them in private before the inquest opened yesterday. Background screams, the relentless crackling of flames, and at one stage a smashing noise, grimly relayed the unimaginable horror of the final moments in the lives of the seven family members.
The 999 operator made desperate attempts to confirm the address of the fire and to reassure the 13-year-old girl but in the end, all that could be heard were gasping noises and the sound of the burning flames.
Two pathologists who carried out post mortems on the victims determined that all seven had died from a combination of inhalation of fumes and carbon monoxide poisoning.
Andrew Wade, a forensic scientist specialising in fire investigation who examined the scene, concluded that the fire had been started deliberately by an occupant of the house by igniting an accelerant that had been poured in the hallway.
The flames spread upwards from the ground floor into the three first-floor bedrooms where all seven victims were found. Both front and back doors had been locked shut from the inside.
He added that he could not exclude the possibility of further petrol being distributed in the staircase and the first floor but there was no evidence of that.
Glowing
The first responder at the scene, police constable Dara McGrath -- who received the emergency call at 4.57 am -- said that by the time he arrived at the house, the roof was on fire and the roof tiles were glowing in the heat.
Evidence was also heard from neighbours who attempted to rescue the trapped family inside.
Stephen Mullan, who lives at 2 Lammy Crescent, was awakened by a man screaming for help and rushed to the scene.
He could see Arthur McElhill attempting to break an upstairs window with his fist and could hear Lorraine McGovern screaming "help us".
Then the window burst and smoke and flames billowed out.
He said he could still hear shouting and coughing "and then nothing".
Two brothers who rushed to the scene with a ladder and wearing just their boxer shorts attempted to get the family out through an upstairs window.
John Paul McGlinn said he could see a man hunkered down at the window in the small front room upstairs.
His brother Mark climbed up three rungs of the ladder and shouted at him to get out or to pass someone out.
But McElhill looked at him and then turned back into the fire, he said.
The inquest is expected to last at least three days.
- Anita Guidera
Irish Independent
