By PA Reporters
A five-year-old girl and her father are among the 10 people named as victims of the devastating explosion at a petrol station in Co Donegal.
Police are continuing to investigate the blast that ripped through the Applegreen service station and convenience store in Creeslough on Friday afternoon.
The huge explosion claimed the lives of 10 local people who have now been named by gardaí.
Those who died were:
- James O’Flaherty (48)
- Jessica Gallagher (24)
- Martin McGill (49)
- Catherine O’Donnell (39) and her son James Monaghan (13)
- Hugh Kelly (59)
- Martina Martin (49)
- Robert Garwe (50) and his daughter Shauna Flanagan Garwe (5)
- Leona Harper (14)
Police said a man in his 20s remains in a critical condition at St James’s Hospital in Dublin.
The seven other surviving casualties continue to receive treatment in Letterkenny University Hospital and remain in a stable condition.
The seven other surviving casualties continue to receive treatment in Letterkenny University Hospital and remain in a stable condition.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has met those who were admitted to hospital, the medical team which was on duty on the day of the explosion, and members of Letterkenny fire station.
Accompanying Mr Martin were Minister for Agriculture and Donegal TD Charlie McConalogue and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.
The remains of the deceased are at the hospital in Letterkenny where postmortem examinations will continue over the next few days.
Gardaí said results will not be released for operational reasons.
The Garda Technical Bureau, with assistance from other agencies, will continue to examine the scene, which remains cordoned off.
Garda Superintendent Liam Geraghty told reporters that what has happened will have “a huge impact to a small rural community”.
He said: “They are all local people. They are all very much involved in the community. They were all people who were shopping in their local shop.
“We have very, very young children. The schools are going to be impacted, the GAA clubs are going to be impacted, the local church, in general the community is going to be severely impacted by this incident.
“But it is a very strong community as was seen here on Friday afternoon with the response of families, friends and neighbours who came to people’s rescue.
“So I am sure the community will come together and will support each other.”
He said there were “very traumatic scenes” on Friday afternoon.
“Emergency responders from right across Co Donegal and wider and our colleagues in Northern Ireland responded to very, very traumatic scenes, and then processed into dealing with recovery of fatalities at the scene,” he said.
He said most of the gardaí involved are local.
“These are the people they work with and the people that they meet on a daily basis,” he said.
At Mass on Sunday in St Michael’s Church in Creeslough, Bishop of Raphoe Alan McGuckian said the people of the village are “living through a nightmare of shock and horror”.
The blast is being treated by gardaí as a “tragic accident”.
