Limerick hero pulled girlfriend from burning building

Last night Dermot Kelly, 52, ran into the inferno on Walnut Court, Kennedy Park, Limerick, and pulled his partner Brigid Dillon, 44, from the flames.

Gardaí said they believe the fire started when a burning Christmas candle fell onto a blanket, which Ms Dillon had fallen asleep under, on a couch in her front living room.

A modest Dermot said: "I just did what anyone would do in the same situation."

"The officer with the fire service said if she was in there another five minutes she was gone. There was too much smoke."

"I brought her out unconscious. She was a dead weight. I couldn't find her at first. The smoke was too bad. I had to come back out, take another deep breath and go back in. I practically fell over her in the corner of the room. I think she was trying to get into the kitchen."

Dermot added: "When I went in the whole place was on fire. I couldn't see anything at all, it was like snow. I was calling out her name and I got no reply."

"It was a candle, as far as a I know, down on top of a blanket in the sitting room. She must have fallen asleep on the couch and the blanket went on fire. The smoke took her over. She wasn't waking up when I got there."

He also praised neighbour Stacey, 25, who raised the alarm: "If Stacey hadn't seen the smoke or the flames in the window Brigid would have been dead because I wouldn't have known anything."

"The firemen told me if she was there another five minutes, it was over."

"Stacey is the hero."

Dermot recalled the dramatic moment he enters the burning house: "The first blast of it I thought something hit me in the chest. When I went in first I took a breath and it hit me like a whack. I couldn't see anything. So I started feeling around the floor. I had to go back out again. I was shouting for her but I got no answer."

"I took another couple of breaths and went back in and I found her in the corner. I got her half way out and I started going down on my knees. I took another breath and I eventually dragged her out.

I got some oxygen off the paramedics and they stayed with me for a few hours."

Eye-witness Stacey explained she and friend Chloe O'Connor, 20, who saw thick black smoke billowing from Brigid's house, rang the fire service and ambulance.

"We were passing the house and there was smoke coming out of it. I phoned the fire service and ran and got Dermot and he went in and he pulled Brigid out. He's a hero. There was four fire trucks. There were crowds outside the house, fire trucks, ambulances and the Gardaí," she said.

Ms Dillon, who remains in hospital, is said to have sustained smoke damage to her lungs but is believed to be in a stable condition.