THE wife of a fireman killed on duty has spoken of her "great sense of relief" after Attorney General John Larkin named a senior officer he believes ordered her husband onto the roof of a burning building.
Dungiven fireman Joe McCloskey (50) died hours after falling through a roof into a blazing storeroom while battling a fire at the Gorteen House Hotel in Limavady on Halloween night in 2003.
The father-of-five and a colleague had earlier been ordered onto the roof of the burning building.
The Northern Ireland Fire Service did carry out an investigation but it failed to establish who gave the order for Mr McCloskey to go on to the roof and nobody was ever disciplined.
Since his death his family have campaigned tirelessly to find out who gave the instruction. At an inquest in 2007 there were contradictory accounts about who was responsible.
In 2013 then health minister Edwin Poots ruled out a fresh investigation or review of the case.
A year later the McCloskey family, through their solicitor Fergal Logan, asked Mr Larkin to order a new inquest into the case.
However while he rejected the call, in a highly unusual move the attorney general identified a retired firefighter, sub officer James Quigg, as the fireman he believes gave the order.
In a letter received by the McCloskey family last week from his department it said “having carefully reviewed all of the evidence the Attorney General is of the firm view that Mr Quigg ordered Mr McCloskey and a colleague to go onto the roof”.
Mr McClosey’s widow Marie last night welcomed the senior legal figure’s conclusion and was scathing in her criticism of the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service.
“Their investigation was from the start a farce,” she said.
She also accused the former health minister of proving the family with “no help or support”.
Ms McCloskey said finally knowing who gave the order provided the family with “a great sense of relief”.
“The NIFRS simply caused us as a family several more years of unnecessary added suffering,” she said.
Mrs McCloskey said she hopes the current fire service “management will welcome the outcome”.
“The grieving process for us is only beginning now but at last we can say after 12 years we have justice for Joe,” she said.
“We can only hope that with any future instances under the NIFRS that no other family will have to suffer the same way as we have over the years in our fight for justice.”
East Derry MLA John Dallat has campaigned on behalf of the McCloskey family.
“This was a very dark time in the senior management of the Fire Authority and that should be acknowledged by the current regime who should be offering the McCloskey Family every co-operation in their continuing campaign to achieve justice,” he said.
A spokesman for the Fire Service said it “understands the continued loss and pain felt by the McCloskey family and Joe’s death remains a tragic loss for NIFRS”.
He added that the service has done “everything that could be expected of us to address the family’s concerns and queries in relation to Joe’s death”.
He said the service also implemented Health and Safety Executive recommendations made in relation to the case and gave evidence to the inquest in 2007.
