GARDAI are treating as suspicious the discovery of the body of a 62 year old man in his home where a fire broke out this evening in Cork city.
A number of units of Cork City Fire Brigade and emergency services rushed to the house on Togher Road on the Southside of the city at around 7pm.
The body of the man was discovered in a room in the property after the fire fighters managed to contain the fire to one room.
Gardai have sealed off the house and the body of the dead man remains at the scene.
The services of the State Pathologist were requested and the local Coroner has been notified.
It’s believed the remains will stay in situ until the arrival of the pathologist.
The Garda Technical Unit is also expected to arrive tomorrow to carry out a full forensic examination of the house, focusing on the room in which the body was found.
The house suffered considerable smoke damage.
Gardai are awaiting the results of the postmortem and the forensic examination before deciding which way their investigation will go.
Gardai in Togher are appealing for anyone who may know anything about the fire or who may have seen anything suspicious in the vicinity of the house on Togher Road to contact them.
Separately, it comes as some schools across Ireland remain closed for a sixth day in a row today after record-breaking Storm Eowyn.
The wicked weather destroyed power lines, left properties without water and pulled down trees that left some educational facilities with structural damage.
A briefing provided to ministers said schools that were closed due to power outages will be back up and running in time to reopen on Monday.
In Galway, Colaiste Bhaile Chláir and Educate Together Primary School remain closed as a battery fire incident in Claregalway Corporate Park enters its third day.
The fire broke out at the facility at around 7:15am on Wednesday, with no injuries reported at the time.
