'Memories of our late dad gone' - Heartache for Tipperary family after house fire

Emma King and her family from Clonakenny, Roscrea, in Tipperary have had their life flipped upside down after their family home was destroyed by a devastating fire.

Emma, who lives with her husband and children, now has to house her mother Lizzie and her two younger brothers, Stephen and Joseph, until they can get a home through the County Council.

Emma has described the horrific moments before her family home suddenly caught fire on Monday, November 17.

"Basically, Mum came home after finishing work and she went to light the back boiler stove in the sitting room. She went out and flipped the switch on the kettle and when she came back into the sitting room, it was all covered in black smoke."

The sitting room, where the fire had started, had a memorial table for Emma's late father who died tragically and suddenly two years ago.

"My mum just got her phone then and ran out to the neighbour across the road and rang 999. A minute and a half later the sitting room window blew out...it exploded."

The fire brigade were at the house to attend to the fire within eight minutes but unfortunately nothing could be saved.

Emma and her family said that the fire brigade in Tipperary were very helpful during the time of the fire and they send their thanks for their efforts in trying to save their family home.

The family has also expressed their gratitude to their very helpful neighbours and also a shop in Templemore who has supported the family after the fire.

"The whole house is gone. All that's left of the house is the shell. It's a three-bedroom house and it has a sitting room, a kitchen, a little dining room thing and my mum's bedroom...they're completely gone, and then the other two bedrooms and that bathroom, they're all smoke damaged and water damaged," Emma said.

As well as losing all of their belongings and their late father's beloved memorial table, one of the their family dogs got
burned and they also tragically lost two kittens in the fire. 

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Emma said her mother was very, very shocked and shaken up because the last two years have not been great for their family because they lost their dad who was only 52 when he died suddenly.

Emma's mother also lost her sister within an eight-month time period of losing her husband.

"Her sister died at 49 of cancer and then she lost her husband eight months later from February and October of 2023.

"Daddy died in October...he took a silent stroke at home and then he ended up getting sepsis in the hospital and a clot
travelled from his chest up to his head and killed him.

"So it's been a very turbulent last two years for my mam and for everyone in our family because there's been nothing but sadness and heartache.

"One thing after another after another. It's just a devastating thing to happen because she even said last night she was just looking there at her home burning and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Everything was just crumbling down around her. And she was just saying, what am I going to do next? What am I supposed to do with my family? Where are we supposed to go? Because like many other people, we're just regular, normal people...we're just living week to week.

"We don't have savings and we don't have lots of money to throw out and just build up a new house or just go and buy all these things because I've built and the cost of day-to-day living has gone to expenses that there's no such thing as saving anymore."

A GoFundMe was created to help Emma and her family during this devastating time and €3,000 has been raised so far.

The link to the GoFundMe can be found here for anyone who would like to show support.

Emma said that she "knows people are getting it hard themselves and they don't have a lot and I understand that, but if they do have anything that they could spare just to help out, so my mum and my two brothers can get back up on their two feet."

Emma said that her mother and two brothers are also receiving local support from the Saint Vincent De Paul organisation with clothes and other items to help them out during this time.