Woman tells inquiry she was ‘on fire’ after Omagh bomb exploded next to her

A woman has described the harrowing moments when she was left on fire after becoming trapped underneath the engine of the car which had carried the Omagh bomb.

The chairman of the Omagh Bombing Inquiry Lord Turnbull said he doubted whether he had ever “heard of such an attitude of kindness and generosity being expressed in the face of barbaric violence”, following the evidence of Pauline Harte.

Ms Hart was a teenager when she was left with life-changing injuries, including having part of her left leg amputated, after the 1998 Real IRA attack in the Co Tyrone town.

The inquiry at the Strule Arts Centre is hearing personal statements from witnesses and people who were injured in the bombing.

The public inquiry was set up by the Government to examine whether the explosion, which killed 29 people including the mother of unborn twins, could have been prevented by the UK authorities.

Ms Harte gave evidence on Tuesday afternoon supported by her husband Ronan.

She told the inquiry that she was a 19-year-old arts student who had got a summer job in the town.

She described being part of the crowd which was moved away from the courthouse area by police during the bomb alert, and how this resulted in people being unwittingly moved towards the vehicle which contained the bomb.

She said: “I thought I should move a bit further back just in case the courthouse did explode.

“At this point I ended up standing beside the car.

“My last memory of this time, before my life changed, was reaching into my pocket to check if I had 95p for the bus fare home.

“Then the bomb went off.

“The engine of the car used for the bomb landed on my legs with the axle resting on my waist and it was on fire.

“I was on fire underneath it.”

Ms Harte said she could hear screaming in the aftermath of the explosion.

She added: “I knew I was trapped and reached my hand down to see what was stopping me.

“I touched the bar across my stomach and that was my first memory of the pain.

“The tar was melted around me and my elbow was sunk into it.”

She said around eight men, including civilians and police officers, attempted to free her.

She told the inquiry: “Along with the other men the officers were able to rock the engine to pull me free, burning their hands in the process.

“These men didn’t stop and tend to their injuries, they kept on helping other people until there was no-one left to help.

“One of the men told me later he went home with my skin melted into his hands.

“I can’t imagine the trauma they went through that day.

“I have found and met some of them, but not them all.

“I remember the profound devastation they felt because some of those they were helping did not survive.”

Ms Harte said she was taken to Omagh hospital before being transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

She had suffered broken ribs, a collapsed lung and had third degree burns below the waist.

She said: “My family were searching for me at this time.

“The fear and heartache of this period has never eased for them.”

Ms Harte added: “Being burnt is horrific.

“I have many memories of screaming in pain and my voice has never been the same since this time.

“I remember the pain of the burns being so acute I could feel the vibrations of someone walking in heels.

“It travelled up through my body until I could feel it in my teeth.

“It was an agonising, searing pain and when I closed my eyes, everything was white.”

She told the inquiry she had undergone multiple operations and countless skin grafts.

“Two weeks after the bombing, part of her left foot was amputated. After a further two weeks, the bottom part of her left leg was amputated.

She said: “I can’t describe the horror of the word amputation.

“I couldn’t and wouldn’t accept that it was going to be a reality.

“I think I still have this feeling.”

Ms Harte added: “My mum came with me to the doors of the theatre and was told she could wait outside.

“She did this quite literally and took a seat right outside the theatre doors.

“She could hear the saw being used to amputate my leg, but stayed because she knew I wanted her to be near me.

“I can’t imagine what this did to her.

“She has never stopped being my backbone for what I have had to face.”

Ms Harte stayed in the burns unit in hospital for four months.

She told the inquiry: “Now, 26 years later and looking back, my overriding feeling is being in awe of what was done for me by so many people and I think of them all often.

“They are the reason I exist and walk tall.”

She said she still lives with constant pain.

But she added: “The bomb reverberated through everyone that tended to me.

“It left its mark on them.

“They absorbed my pain and I’m so grateful yet so sorry they did this for me.

“I could never have done it on my own.”

Ms Harte paid tribute to her husband Ronan and her four children.

She said: “My body is broken but I will be forever thankful that I don’t have a broken heart.”

Addressing the witness, Lord Turnbull said: “There will be few people, if any, either in this room or listening or watching elsewhere who will ever have heard an account of such appalling physical suffering as was inflicted upon you as a 19-year-old young woman.

“Or of the suffering you have endured in the many years since.”

He said: “In listening to your evidence, just as I have been, I am sure others will have been humbled by the extent to which, in the middle of your own suffering and pain, you have so frequently expressed concern for those who came to your rescue and for those who cared for and looked after you, both at the time and the years since.

“I doubt whether I have ever heard of such an attitude of kindness and generosity being expressed in the face of barbaric violence of the sort which was inflicted upon you.

“Yours is truly an account of survival, not just of you as a person, but also an account of the survival of the qualities of humanity.”