THERE is still anxiety and fear amongst many people in Lammy and the community may not be able to achieve a level of closure over the fire deaths in the estate until the funerals of the victims take place.

The grim remains of the private house at 4 Lammy Crescent where seven members of the McElhill family perished in an early morning arson, have been covered up somewhat by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive so as to limit the visual impact on the community. However, despite the work of trauma teams and community workers, many people are still feeling anxious, raw, and afraid following the tragedy just over two weeks ago.

Omagh District Council's Community Development Officer, Gerry McCusker, said that there is a lot of work being done with a number of agencies.

However, he intimated that there was some concern in the community that only a very limited flow of information was becoming available to the community as to the when the funerals of the tragic family members may take place.

A number of people in the area have, along with the agencies, formed the Lammy Incident Group, which aims to co-ordinate an agreed approach to dealing with the issues that have arisen since the fire.

Dead flowers were removed from the site and mementoes, cards poems and pictures were removed for safe keeping. It is planned to reproduce all of the memorials in two booklets, one for each family

The incident group plans to meet regularly and feed back to the residents any issues or concerns that may arise, and have asked residents with any concerns to get back to the group. The group has also given the residents an undertaking to inform them of the funeral arrangements for the family as they become known.

Police are still refusing to comment on any aspect of their murder investigation other than to say that it is a large scale investigation involving police and officers from other organisations.

The Coroners Office in Belfast has confirmed that it will release the bodies when it is contacted by the families as to the funeral arrangements. A spokesperson for the Coroner could not provide any explanation as to the delay regarding funeral arrangements. No date has yet been set for an inquest into the deaths.