The mother of a teenage girl who was killed in an explosion has opened up about the tragic accident, and how her daughter was lost in the rubble for the 24 hours following the blast.
Donna Harper, mother of 14-year-old Leona Harper, revealed that a digger driver had refused to stop searching for her daughter's body after she hadn't been accounted for by emergency services.
Leona was at the Applegreen filling station in Creeslough, Co Donegal, when disaster struck last Friday afternoon. She had been inside the service station, choosing an ice cream with her friend.
The explosion occurred at the petrol station at 3:20pm, with 10 people losing their lives.
Speaking yesterday, Donna said: “We’re just trying to hold up as best as we can. There’s really no words. We’d just like to say thank you to every single person that was down there on Friday.”
She arrived with her eldest son, Anthony, 22, around half an hour after the blast. She said: “There were a lot of different things said. I was told that she was trapped in there, but we were also told there was a big possibility that she might be on her way to hospital. Quite later on then everybody was accounted for at the hospital and then we had realised then that Leona didn’t make it out.”
Donna explained that the digger driver involved in the search carried on going until he recovered Leona.
Speaking to Highland Radio, Donna said: “Massive thank you to him because he just didn’t stop until he got her. It was 24 hours before we got her. She was the last taken out.
“But the doctors and everybody were amazing. They treated the whole thing from start to finish with nothing more than respect.”
Leona’s father left work in Ballyshannon and headed to Letterkenny University Hospital with son Jamie, where they waited for Leona to be brought in by ambulance.
He said: “When I finally got down to the hospital, the staff were amazing. They set up an incident room. They informed us every 15 and 20 minutes what was going on.
“Let people know when their loved ones were coming in. Initially we had thought Leona was in an ambulance on her way there but it turned out that she just wasn’t here. As time went on, we knew in our heart and soul that if she wasn’t in the hospital, we knew where she was.
“The staff in the hospital, I don’t think they could have done anymore.”
He said: “Leona was a little gem, very outgoing and very friendly, a lovely person. She was very quiet and laid back, loved life and the outdoors. Walking through fields, going fishing and spending time with friends going to car shows. She was very, very special. She is going to be very sorely missed.”
Leona’s body has yet to be returned to her family, but they are hoping to receive an update as to when she can come home.
