A young woman died in the early hours of Monday morning following a house fire in Co Limerick.
The body of the woman, aged in her late 20s, was discovered by firefighters searching inside the property at The Oaks, Riverbank, Annacotty, shortly before 4am.
The three-storey property is being rented to three members of the UL Bohemians rugby squad, a club representative confirmed.
The alarm was raised by one of the players, who telephoned emergency services at 3.12am.
Two units attached to Limerick City Fire and Rescue Service attended the blaze at 3.20am. When firefighters arrived they were met by the three players, and another woman.
Socialising
The deceased, along with the other woman, are believed to have been socialising with the three men and had been staying over at the property.
Firefighters, using breathing apparatus, entered the house and located the woman’s body in a bedroom on the second floor. Her body was later taken from the house to University Hospital Limerick where a postmortem is due to be carried out.
Foul play is not suspected; however, gardaí and fire authorities are continuing to investigate into the cause of the fire.
According to sources, the fire started in the second-floor bedroom where the woman’s body was found.
Tony Quilty, public relations officer of UL Bohemians, described the incident as “an awful tragedy”.
“All our thoughts are with the boys, and the young lady who died and her family,” he said.