Community left ‘numb’ as girl, 12, dies in Ballymena house fire
A 12-year-old girl has sadly died in a house fire in the Ballykeel area of Ballymena, Co Antrim.
Police and other emergency services attended the scene at Staffa Drive on Wednesday evening.
Local residents have expressed shock and sadness, with many posting messages of sympathy for the family - who are well-known in the area - on social media.
Pastor Thomas Todd, from Ballykeel Pentecostal Church, told UTV he had spoken with the family and that they were struggling to come to terms with the loss.
The cause of the fire remains unclear, but it is understood to have started in a bedroom.
Pastor Todd paid tribute to the young victim as a “quite quiet, well-behaved, friendly” young girl who was “always very pleasant, very polite”.
Local independent councillor Rodney Quigley said people in the area were “just totally numb”.
Extending his sympathies to the family, he added: “It just doesn’t bear thinking about.”
The tragedy comes amid a separate police investigation centred in the Ballykeel area after a man was earlier found murdered in a flat on the Crebilly Road.