GREAT GRAN SAVED BY SMOKE ALARM AS HOUSE GUTTED

Device woke 86-year-old in time to flee home inferno

- LOUISE WALSH

A GREAT-grandmother's life was saved by a fire alarm that woke her up in time to escape a fire that gutted her home.

The family of Kathleen Weldon is now urging people to ensure their alarms are working after the blaze destroyed the 86-year-old's house and all her possessions.

Kathleen was napping in her armchair in the sitting room at her home in Mulhussey, Co Meath, when she was woken by the alarm and saw thick black smoke coming from her living room last Thursday afternoon.

While she escaped with her life, Kathleen has lost everything she treasured in the fire at the house where she lived for 48 years, many of those with her late husband Thomas and four children.