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Carryduff fire: 91-year-old man dies as neighbour's house fire spreads | |
(1 day later) | |
A 91-year-old man has died after an overnight fire near his house engulfed his property in Carryduff, on the outskirts of Belfast. | |
Samuel Carson died after a blaze in the garage of a house at Thorndale Park, off the Hillsborough Road, caused his home to go up in flames. | |
Firefighters responded to a call of an oil tank on fire at the neighbour's house at about 01:00 BST on Tuesday. | |
Mr Carson was removed from his home but he died at the scene. | |
Police have said they do not believe the cause of the fire was suspicious. | |
The pastor of Carryduff Baptist Church, Gordon Walker, said the tragedy had left the family shaken. | |
"One of his daughters was actually here when they brought him out of the house and you know there will come a day when he is going to be taken away from us. | |
"But to go in this way, I think that just processing that is going to be the most challenging thing over the next few days." | |
"Tragic" | |
In a statement, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) said: "Firefighters rescued a 91-year-old man from the property, and alongside ambulance personnel they carried out CPR, but sadly the man died at the scene." | |
The firefighter in charge of the operation, group commander Kevin O'Neill, described the circumstances of the fire as "tragic". | |
"When we arrived we saw that the fire had spread from the garage to an oil tank, which had ruptured causing the rupture of a second oil tank, and the running heating oil from these two oil tanks ran downhill into another property, and the occupant in that property subsequently died as a a result of the fire," Mr O'Neill said. | |
The blaze that had damaged the bungalow, the garage and the oil tanks took about four hours to bring under control and was dealt with by 05:00 BST. | |
'Multiple explosions' | |
BBC News NI reporter Rick Faragher, who went to the scene on Tuesday morning, said neighbours told him that Mr Carson lived alone. | |
"One woman who lives two doors down from the property told me she heard multiple explosions, as many as five," he said. | |
"She and the rest of the small street came out to see what was happening and saw what she called large flames." | |
About 40 firefighters, seven fire appliances and a command support unit were involved in the operation. |