Saddest news story I've read in a while.

[somedayma]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-19614688

I can't imagine being the mother/wife. To have lost 2 sons and a husband in a day.

I don't think I really understand how it happened. Just awful. Perhaps so irrationally upset because I'm from N.I! And PMSing

very very sad

i won't open the link as saw this on the news.
terrible

I suppose it's of some comfort that the daughter is expected to be fine. That's something

I grew up on a farm and learned from an early age to keep away from the slurry pit. it was my mothers worse fear.. I hated it .

So very very tragic. It looks like the father fell in and the sons tried to rescue him :(

Skye can you explain a slurry pit to me please? Is it just a huge tank? Deep obviously?

I have also just read this. Desperately sad. Admirable of the sons to try and help, though I would have bet their father would rather they'd have stayed clear and saved themselves. I know my dad would feel that way

Their dog went in. The dad went to get it, was overcome by fumes. The sons went to get him and they too were overcame. The daughter then went to help but also was overcome.

So so sad. I cannot imagine what the family must be going through. DP knows the family through church and has been numb since he heard. They are well respected here. Its just shocking.

Disabil I'm sure you're right. Very admirable but depressingly futile

A slurry pit is usually a huge lake full of liquid waste (cow poo) basically.... Sometimes it might be a tower or a lagoon.

It is thick gloopy and full of methane gas. The fumes can overcome or if you get sucked into it you don't stand s chance. Cows die if they get stuck in them ..

So tragic. I hope it wasn't over a dog, no animal is worth more than human life especially three nearly four :(

I read it was the dog who got trapped first . It is awful. Farms are such dangerous places and all these people will have known that, tried to be careful but still awful accidents can happen.

Dreadfully sad. My heart goes out to the family. It's bad enough losing a child, and I know that pain all too well but to lose two and your husband all at the same time, that poor, poor woman.

I heard this on the news today, and my thoughts went immediately to the poor wife / mother. Unimaginable to lose your husband and 2 grown sons in one terrible accident, and for it to be at your home so be faced with the daily visual reminders, or moving and leaving your home, livlihood, everything. Awful, awful tragedy. I'm so, so, very sad for her. .

I agree that to lose 3 lives over a dog is such a bloody waste.

And I say that as an animal lover!

It is so desperately sad, a real tradgedy

This is such a sad story. My heart goes out to the wife and mother and to the brothers' two surviving sisters.

My uncle went into a slurry pit once to look for a watch, can easily believe they went in trying to get the dog.

One of the saddest things is the way it's been reported, very much noting the deaths of Nevin's father and brother as an afterthought. Edwin Poots pointed this out today, probably the first and last time we'll ever see eye to eye. God help those poor women, you never know the minute.

Further to my post about methane gas - this was in the Daily Mail - Slurry pits emit poisonous gases such as hydrogen sulphide and ammonia, so can be dangerous if not ventilated properly.

The former, a poison which attacks the nervous system, is particularly dangerous as it disables the sense of smell ? meaning the victim cannot sense how concentrated it is.

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2203871/Nevin-Spence-death-Rugby-player-died-slurry-pit-trying-save-father.html#ixzz26jHy4c21