The McGeown home catches fire, and Davy is rescued

The McGeown home catches fire, and Davy is rescued in a scene where danger inside the house is compounded by hostility outside it. Cushla reaches the estate to find smoke, a crowd gathered on the McGeown street, and family members already outside. When she learns Davy may still be in the house, she goes in after him and leads him out. His rescue gives way immediately to another urgent problem: getting the family away from the crowd.

The fire and the crowd

Cushla turns into the estate and finds that the first groups of houses appear closed, but the doors near the square where the McGeown family lives stand open. She cannot drive through the assembled crowd and abandons the car. Among those present are women who had scowled during the aftermath of Seamie’s earlier attack, and a girl who had previously stood off against Gina. Their presence gives the fire’s public setting a threatening dimension: the family is exposed not only to the blaze but also to people whose hostility Cushla recognizes.

Betty stands on the path holding Mandy by the sleeve and trying to pull her back. Seamie leans against Betty, his face turned into her shoulder. Cushla asks where Davy is; Betty says he was there a moment earlier. The uncertainty turns Cushla’s attention from the crowd to the house. She pushes through, calling for him, then sees him go through the open door and follows.

Davy’s rescue

Inside, smoke has filled the sitting room and the furnishings and finishes are burning or damaged. Cushla tries to call Davy, but the smoke makes her voice fail. She hears the staircase creak and sees him on the landing, with his eyes squeezed shut, reaching for the banister as he comes down. She catches his hand on the fourth-last step and drags him out through the front door. A fireman pulls them farther from the house, and they fall onto the lawn, coughing.

Davy has brought his satchel with him. Cushla gently opens his hands to see what he is holding, then tells him that rescuing it was brave and foolish. She is crying as she gets up and takes him by the hand toward his family. The satchel makes the rescue more than a simple escape from the fire: even amid immediate danger, Davy has kept hold of an object from his ordinary life. Cushla’s response registers both his courage and the risk he has taken.

Suspicion and escape

The fire engine arrives quickly. Cushla recalls having heard that the fire brigade was sometimes summoned before a blaze began, so a house would not be wasted by burning completely down. This is presented as something she has heard, not as proof of who started the fire or how the brigade learned of it. The police arrive as well, but the officer’s attempt to clear the crowd seems half-hearted to Cushla; he knows some of those present, and most do not move.

A woman in the crowd accuses Tommy of murder. The crowd begins to close in, while Cushla asks Betty whether Tommy is there; the scene does not establish his whereabouts. Cushla decides that the family must leave. Seamie moves slowly, supported on one side by Betty and on the other by Mandy, whose lips move as if she is praying. The crowd starts to follow them, but another siren briefly distracts it. Cushla uses that opening to get the family into her car. The episode ends not with the fire resolved but with the family escaping immediate danger, their home burning behind them and the threat outside still present.