Updated at 8:02pm
COUPLES AND FAMILIES – many bearing flowers and other tributes – continued to arrive at the scene all afternoon, as the scale of the overnight tragedy at the Carrickmines halting site began to become apparent.
Two infants – one as young as six months – were among ten people who lost their lives, as what Taoiseach Enda Kenny would later describe as an “inferno” tore through two homes at the site, which sits just off the Glenamuck Road in south Dublin.
Garda cordons were in place on roads around the area from first thing today.
Motorists making their way from the M50 to Kilternan in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains were waved away from the scene.
As emergency vehicles came and went, several locals out walking spoke to reporters to ask what had happened, and how the fire had started.
Members of the Travelling community leaving cards and flowers said they were devastated at the news.
An ashen-faced Alex White – a local TD – described it as a “dreadful, dreadful tragedy”.
For the most part, though, nobody really knew what to say about the unspeakable loss of life, and the pain felt by loved ones left behind.
Senior fire officers, at the scene since early this morning, stuck to the facts of the call-out and the response, as they spoke to reporters.
The chief investigating garda spoke at length about how the community was responding to the tragedy and what practical measures were being taken, before officially confirming the number of dead.
Family members of those killed are being looked after by the Southside Traveller Action Group in Sandyford, O’Sullivan said.
That group said the Travelling community was “in a state of shock at the devastating loss of lives”.
“We are doing everything we can to support them.”
Families left homeless by the tragedy would be put-up tonight by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Council, it was confirmed.
“All of those young children were just so innocent,” the Taoiseach said this afternoon – promising a full investigation into how the blaze started.
President Higgins called it a “most dreadful tragedy”.
Investigation
Dublin Fire Brigade finished up its work at the halting site late this afternoon, as the last of its units left Glenamuck Road.
The Deputy State Pathologist had arrived, and garda forensics experts had already begun their examination as a number of bodies remained at the scene.
One housing unit had been fully engulfed in the blaze, the fire service’s Denis Keeley said. Another was burnt only partially.
Chief Superintendent O’Sullivan said he expected the investigation would take “a considerable period of time”.
First published at 6:26pm. Comments have been disabled on this article.
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