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Updated 2:30pm 9/2/17
TRIBUTES HAVE BEEN paid to the Cork couple who, along with a close relative, died following a house fire in the UK on Monday.
Named locally as Joe and Anne Whelan, it is believed the couple were visiting Joe’s brother Jim who lived in Hornchurch, east of London.
Jim is said to have been in ill health in recent months, and Joe and Anne had come to help take care of him.
The brothers were originally from Dublin, but Joe and Anne had been living in Cobh, Co Cork before going to stay with Jim, who had lived around London for much of his adult life.
A neighbour of Jim told the Evening Standard that the news was heartbreaking for the whole community.
They said: “He was a very close neighbour, this fire has broken the entire street.
His family came over to help him and they perished too – it’s just awful.
Another neighbour, Valerie Newman, said: “Jim was lovely, dead chatty and the fittest man for his age.”
Essex Live reports that firefighters were called to the ground floor fire at the house on Laburnum Avenue in the town at about 4am on Monday morning.
It’s understood that Anne died at the scene, while the two men who were removed to hospital later died from their injuries. She was aged 68, while Joe and Jim were aged 74 and 76, respectively.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan expressed his “deepest sympathies” to the families involved.
“I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the three people who died following a house fire in Hornchurch in Essex, on Monday,” Flanagan said in a statement yesterday evening.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is providing consular assistance to those families at present.
The cause of the fire is not yet known. It was brought under control by the fire services in attendance, four fire engines and 21 firefighters, before 6am.
“My thoughts and those of everyone at the brigade are with the friends and family of the three people who have died following the tragic fire in Hornchurch on Monday morning,” London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said in a statement.
Firefighters worked extremely hard and did all they could in difficult conditions.
A Metropolitan Police investigation was launched into the cause of the fire and concluded that no suspicious circumstances were present.
“We are very sad that the community has lost three of its members in this very tragic incident,” said Chief Superintendent Sean Wilson of Havering borough police.
This appears to be through accidental circumstances. Our prayers and condolences go out to the families of those involved.
With reporting from Sean Murray
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Is this a wind up ?
On the other hand I’d love to have the money to buy it
Just like and share to be in with a chance to win one.
Not for me.
I couldn’t tell my boss I was late because of my watch.
Don’t see any reason there to pay 1.1m for a watch, save the money and ask someone the time, or if you can pay that type of cash for a watch why the fu*k would you care what time it is
I honestly think a finely made watch is beautiful. I feel naked if I don’t wear one on a night out. I think a watch and ring is the only jewellery a man should wear. I do have a watch fetish but have never spent any more that 500 euro on one. Any more is just silly. But sure if you are loaded why not.
I agree family guy, I wear my watch all the time and feel naked without it.
Does it have a calculator though?
And all it does is tell the time
does it have a sexy voice..??
Ill have 2
One for each wrist?
Oh yeh. I’ll be unbalanced if i don’t
Another upstart of a company.
Established no doubt, to separate new money easterners from their cash.
Well if they’re foolish with their dollars.
Maybe they deserve to be shafted.
Your a boor.
Fact are booring.
My auld Casio will do me. Best 15euro I ever spent.
I’d rather have a Veyron.
But not the cost of running it. They would financially cripple you, which is why the vast majority of those on the market have hardly been driven.
You think the running cost is why the majority of veyrons are not driven in public…?
Skin, no, not the sole reason but almost certainly a contributory factor.
Four sprung durch technik?
Time is your worst enemy, why would you pay 1.1 Million, for a watch, and half the world’s Children starving, it beggers belief.
300 watches = 1 children’s hospital
But you can’t wear the other 299 watches on your arm now can you.
Do the ladies really judge a fella by the piece on his wrist?!
To spend that much on a watch you’d have to have a piece for a head…
It’s not what’s on his wrist that they care about, it’s the distance from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger. So shallow…
I’ve got 200 of these unwrapped which can’t be sold. Like and share to be in with a chance to win one :)
Well it would also have to bring me my tea and toast up to the bed in the morning as well if I paid that price for it!!!!!!
Does it only work when tethered to an iPhone 6?
what is a power reserve function? and how is it powered?
Looks like the strap is extra!
If I could afford this I would care what time it was
Saw a watch that cost $350,000 in a shop the other day. It’s made from authentic pieces salvaged from the Titanic! Some people…
Watch yourself….
have your say