Kim English, Philip English, Callum and Jayden died after a fire on Birch Avenue in Waterford, and gardaí now believe the house was attacked deliberately. The four family members were named locally after the blaze, while two other children remain critically ill in hospital in Dublin.
Callum was 12 and Jayden was nine. Johnville FC said Callum played for the club, and described Kim and Philip as familiar and friendly faces at the matches, giving the deaths a personal weight beyond the police inquiry now under way.
Anthony Pettit at Waterford Garda Station
Anthony Pettit said officers believe the house was attacked by a person or persons unknown and that the fire was started deliberately. The house has been declared a crime scene, and the Garda Technical Bureau is carrying out a technical examination while post-mortem examinations will take place at University Hospital Waterford.
Waterford Fire Service was alerted at 05:13 local time on Tuesday, shortly after the fire was reported on Birch Avenue. It said crews arrived to a well-developed fire at a two-storey house, removed a number of casualties before the blaze was extinguished, and then handed the scene over to gardaí.
Birch Avenue in County Waterford
The location sits in the Birchwood housing estate about 3km outside Waterford city centre, where the fire has triggered a multiple murder investigation. Johnville FC later posted that it was “absolutely heartbroken and devastated by the tragic events” and said, “Kim and Philip were familiar and friendly faces around our club, always there supporting Callum at his matches.”
The club added that it was “incredibly difficult to comprehend that a family we knew so well has been taken from us in such tragic circumstances,” and sent “love and deepest condolences” to those affected. For the families involved, the practical next step is the forensic examination of the house and the post-mortems, which will feed the case file now moving through the murder investigation.
