'We are all here alive and kicking and a hard lesson has been learned'

A Ramelton-based family have issued a warning about the pitfalls of leaving phone chargers unattended as their six year-old son suffered burns as his bed went on fire as he slept.

On the grand scale of things, Nicola McCauley and her husband Ryan, who are both originally from Letterkenny, believe they had a lucky escape when their eldest son, 15-year-old Dualtach - a third year student at Mulroy College in Milford - had the awareness to save his younger brother Donnacha from further injury. 

Donnacha, who is in senior infants at Scoil Mhuire in Ramelton, suffered burns and was treated at Letterkenny University Hospital and is now back at home and in good form getting well looked after.

“On Tuesday evening we put Donnacha to bed as usual and Dualtach went down at 11:30pm and all was fine,” Nicola says. “I was just getting into bed at 12:05am when I heard a scream and then Dualtach shouted my name.

“He woke up when Donnacha cried and saw flames so jumped from his top bunkbed and pulled Donnacha out of the bottom bunk, which was on fire. I met him and Donnacha in the hall and I screamed to get the rest of the house up and out and Ryan started pouring water on it.

"Luckily, we had a fire extinguisher in the kitchen so I ran to get that and in 30 seconds I was away. The room was filled with smoke and flames, which were getting bigger - thankfully we were able to put the fire out at that stage.

“We noticed then that Donnacha had been burnt so we rushed him to A&E and I have to commend the staff on duty; those at reception sent us straight through and we meet a lovely nurse Alan who had us set up in a room with nurses and doctors within minutes  - they were getting pain medication for Donnacha and gauzing his wounds.

“He has burns to his head, hand, toes, and leg but thankfully nothing too bad and he is now home and lapping up the attention! His mattress, duvet sheet etc were all destroyed.

"We checked and saw that the cause of the fire was a charger. This was a  genuine Samsung charger - not a cheap one - that was plugged into the wall, not into the tablet. It must have overheated and his mattress caught fire. 

Nicola believes there was someone looking out for Donnacha, like her late mother Bridget, who died in 2016, and her sister Theresa, who passed away this year.

“Mammy and Theresa must have been looking down on us as when you see the damage to his jammies duvet and mattress, he is lucky to be here and thank God, Dualtach woke and had the sense to save his wee brother or it could be a far worse outcome," Nicola adds. "A few people mentioned it to me to share this story as it might raise some awareness and save someone else.

“So please keep the charger off when not in use. Apart from a big shock and apart from Donnacha’s burns we are all here alive and kicking and a hard lesson has been learned. This could have been so much and if it was a few minutes more, we might've had have a different story to tell.”