The Mayo News

The inquest into the death of the couple who were found dead after a house fire at their home in Muings, Barnatra was adjourned last week to facilitate ongoing garda investigations.
TRAGIC FIND Garda’, Firemen, and locals at the Carey on Monday, May 4. Pic: Keith Heneghan/Phocus

Couple died of carbon monoxide poisoning


Inquest hears tragic evidence from relative who found couple in Barnatra house

THE inquest into the death of the couple who were found dead after a house fire at their home in Muings, Barnatra was adjourned last week to facilitate ongoing garda investigations. An open verdict was recorded until a conclusion to the inquiry is reached but foul play has been ruled out as a cause of the tragic deaths.
The bodies of husband and wife, Stephen and Josephine (Josie) Carey were found in their detached home in Muings on Bank Holiday Monday, May 4 last.
A special sitting of the Coroner’s Court was held in Crossmolina last Thursday in order to facilitate repatriation of remains to England, where the Erris natives had spent much of their lives. Acting coroner for north Mayo, Dr Eleanor Fitzgerald, accepted an application by Superintendent Michael Larkin to adjourn the inquest but, as the cause of death was determined as carbon monoxide poisoning in both cases, she recorded an open verdict in the case.
Witness, Martin Cuffe of Glencullen Lower, Bangor Erris, told the inquest he was related to the Careys through marriage.
He said he and his wife had been socialising in the West End Bar in Bangor Erris on Sunday, May 3 with Stephen and Josephine Carey after closing the family-run restaurant, where Josephine was an employee.
Mr Cuffe said he and his wife left the pub no later than 10pm to go home, while the Careys remained there. On Monday morning, he attempted to make contact with the couple several times and at 1pm drove to their home.
After receiving no response at the door, he looked in the letterbox and saw evidence of smoke damage inside the building. He then travelled to the neighbouring house, Lally’s, to see if the couple were there, fearing they had left the house during a fire overnight. On realising ‘something was very wrong’, he returned to the house and broke a window to gain entry. He subsequently saw the body of Stephen Carey lying in the hallway and his wife Josephine against the couch in the sitting room.
The last person to see the couple alive, Ann O’Boyle, had been helping out in the West End Bar that night. She drove the couple home and assisted them into the house. She said she linked Stephen into the house as his wife informed her he had a ‘bad leg’ – his foot had been amputated from the ankle and he had a fit-in in place.
She said Stephen Carey fell and they helped him back up onto the couch in the sitting room.
Garda Sean McHale entered the house after 2pm and said there was extensive smoke damage to the house with every wall in the detached home blackened from waist-level to the ceiling.
In his post-mortem report, Pathologist, Dr Fadel  Bennani, told the Coroner the bodies of both Stephen and Josephine Carey were unremarkable, except for carbon dust on the faces. He noted there was no evidence of injury on either party but both were pink in colour, indicating carbon monoxide poisoning.
Further examination revealed that carbon monoxide levels in both were extremely high at 70 per cent each. The Pathologist described this as ‘lethal’ as death can occur at ‘anything over 40 per cent’ and said that ‘many scenarios’ could have occurred.
“Carbon monoxide is colourless, odourless and tasteless and there could be a lot of speculation as to what happened. They may have lost consciousness within half an hour,” he said.
Detective Sgt Eamon Breslin, of the Scenes of Crime Unit, said inquiries were ongoing but the gardaí carried out a full inspection of the scene on May 4. He said the fire occurred in the bedroom, and was concentrated at the left hand side of the bed in an area of eight to nine feet. A cable was plugged into a three pin socket above the bed and after further examination an apparatus found on the bed was found to be a hair dryer. There was evidence that the carpet in the area had melted rather than burned. During a subsequent visit with an electrician the central ceiling light fitting was examined as it was directly above the bed and the light switch had been left in the on position.
Following this the ESB disconnected the electricity supply as it was deemed to be unsafe.
During the examination of the clothing of Josephine Carey, a packet of cigarettes and lighter was recovered from her jacket pocket.
Coroner, Dr Fitzgerald, agreed to adjourn the inquest but said ‘it is very important that we get to the bottom of this. It is a public safety issue.’
“Carbon monoxide is something we are getting to know about more and more. In this case, it was a completely lethal and unrecoverable. The only consolation is the Careys did not suffer this knowingly,” she said.
The inquest was adjourned pending further garda investigations in a bid to establish the cause of the fire.

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