Firefighter talks about his cousin who died helping others during Ophelia

A tragic loss of life.

While the majority of the country maybe had to deal with a power outage or a day off work, for three groups of families around the country, Storm Ophelia changed their lives forever. The powerful ex-hurricane landed in Ireland and promptly caused wide-spread damage, and sadly resulted in the loss of the three lives in different parts of the country. Firefighter Paddy Pyke from Clonmel was in the audience of The Late Late Show this weekend, and he told his story of how he had been called out to an incident, only to discover that he has dealing with the accidental death of his own first cousin. Michael Pyke is described as a "gentle giant" who was out of the roads during Ophelia in attempt to help others, when he was killed by the falling limb of a tree.

Clonmel Firefighter Paddy Pyke went to help during Storm #Ophelia but arrived to find that his cousin Michael Pyke had been killed #latelate pic.twitter.com/Da4VqVoCXA

— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) October 20, 2017

As Storm Brian continues to hit certain parts of the country, people are reminded to be extra vigilant this weekend, as high wind and rain warnings have been put in place. Additionally, trees and structures that may have been weakened by Storm Ophelia may be damaged further by Storm Brian this weekend.