METRO FREE Wednesday, October 21, 2009 By david young Help me, Im burning...run Picture:PA RELATIVES wept yesterday as they listened to a harrowing 999 call made by a terrified schoolgirl moments before she died with six other family members in a house fire start- ed by her father. Caroline McGovern, 13, screamed Help me and Im burning... run as she gasped for breath in her burn- ing home in Omagh, Co Tyrone, a coroners court heard. Her heavy-drinking, depressive fa- ther, 36-year-old Arthur McElhill, a convicted sex offender, killed him- self, his partner Lorraine McGovern, 29, and their five children when he doused their house with petrol and torched it in November 2007. be heard in the distance from other family members on the recording. Caroline then spluttered the par- tially coherent: Hes k... us. The call to the emergency services lasted around six minutes, but Caro- line only spoke to the operator for the first 45 seconds. As the call drew to an end, a series of gasping noises were clearly audi- ble these are believed to be Caro- lines last breaths. The state pathologist earlier told the court all seven were alive when the fire started and had died from ei- ther carbon monoxide poisoning or smoke inhalation. Mr McElhill was not drunk at the time of the fire. The hearing is expected to last three days but the McElhill family are also taking a court challenge against the evidence of some witnesses. There was contradictory evidence yesterday from some neighbours. One man who arrived on the scene described the couple calling for help from the upstairs window, while an- other who arrived shortly afterwards with a ladder described Mr McElhill as seemingly ignoring rescue at- tempts and turning from the window back into the smoke. Wiped out: Lorraine Mcgovern and arthur McElhill with James, ten months, Caroline, 13, Bellina, four, Sean, seven, and Clodagh, 19 months The farm labourer, who had a his- tory of suicide attempts and was twice found guilty of sex attacks on teenage girls, is believed to have started the blaze after Ms McGovern threatened to leave him. Firemen found the badly burned bodies of all seven in the house at Lammy Crescent. Eldest child Caro- line still had a phone in one hand and her rosary beads in the other. Relatives from both extended fam- ilies wept and shielded their ears as her desperate cries for help echoed around Omagh Court House on the opening day of the inquest. As well as the teenagers frantic pleas, muffled screams for help could Caroline found with rosary in her hand Girls desperate 999 call as family die in fire started by father YouTube first with live U2 concert See Page 3 index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html