Gardaí are continuing with a technical examination of the scene of a house fire in Co Cork that claimed the lives of two pensioners in their 80s early this morning.
Bachelor Michael Coleman (88) and his sister Nora (85) perished when fire broke out at their single story cottage at Rathcoursey in East Ferry outside Midleton at around 5.15am.
The alarm was raised by a neighbour who spotted smoke coming from the house and fire units of the Cork County Fire Service from Midleton and Cobh attended at the scene.
Firefighters using breathing apparatus removed both casualties from the house but both were pronounced dead at the scene at around 8am.
Both deceased were removed to Cork University Hospital where a postmortem examination is due to be carried out by a pathologist later today.
A Garda technical team has begun a forensic examination of the scene, but all indications are there was nothing suspicious about the blaze, a Garda spokesman said.
Ted Murphy, former mayor of Midleton, said: “It’s sad, very sad, to go this way near the end of their lives. They were a nice, quiet country family.”
Witnesses to the fire are asked to contact Midleton Garda station on 021 4621550 or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111.
