Houses destroyed by fire at Creamery Gardens, Ballycanew; Pic, Christy Farrell.
Villagers at Ballycanew were awakened by a loud crackling noise only to discover a major fire in a block of terraced houses in the early hours of last Thursday morning.
Two houses were badly damaged and a third house was smoke damaged following an outbreak of fire at Creamery Gardens, in the centre of the village.
Many people left their beds to see what was happening and a call was put through to the fire service.
Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Colm McGrath, confirmed that early on Thursday at 2.45 am Gorey Fire Brigade was alerted to a call for a domestic fire at Ballycanew and two fire tenders were quickly dispatched to the scene.
When the fire-fighters arrived on the scene they found thick black smoke bellowing into the night sky and three of the four terraced houses were affected by the raging fire.
The immediate concern of the firefighters was to prevent the spread of the fire.
Conditions were calm and dry which made favoured the firefighters, and consequently the fire was quickly brought under control.
“Two houses were extensively damaged and the third house had smoke damage,” said Mr McGrath.
A pair of two-storey modern houses were left roofless and badly damaged by the intense heat.
A third house was affected by smoke damage and a four house in the terrace escaped, but locals feared that the entire block was in danger of being destroyed in the blaze.
Fortunately, all the houses were unoccupied at the time, and there was no threat to life or limb.
The houses had been occupied recently.
The fire service spent some time with damping down and cleaning up operations.
The scene was closed off and an investigation was conducted to ascertain the cause of the fire.
It was a night of high drama in the village and Gardaí put traffic diversions in place.
The Ballycanew to Killenagh road was closed to traffic for some time.
A spokesperson for the fire service said that all unoccupied houses should ensure they have working smoke alarms and where possible for neighbours to carry out checks and monitor the property.
Full story in THE GOREY ECHO.
