Members of the town’s fire service were attending to floods in the area when they received a call stating that there was a house fire at a property at Carley’s Bridge. It was then decided to leave the scene of the flooding and rush to the house and fire fighters arrived at Peter O’Shea’s home at approximately 9.50 a.m.

Due to flooding, the fire fighters were left with some problems as they approached the house.

“We had two pumps at the scene, but when we got there, there was around three or four feet of water in the driveway and we couldn’t get the fire engine in,” a spokesman for Enniscorthy Fire Service said. “We had to approach the house on foot and gained entry through the rear. We believe the fire started somewhere near the stairway area of the house and when we got inside we found a man in his fifties unconscious in one of the bedrooms.”

The fire fighters had to battle their way through considerable smoke to get to the man and as soon as they got him out of the house, he was given CPR. An ambulance was immediately called for and Mr O’Shea was said to be coming around when he was rushed to Wexford General Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.

As well as sustaining considerable smoke damage from the fire, around three to four inches of water had also found its way into Mr O’Shea’s home, in what was a devastating double blow. Despite damage sustained to the house, a spokesman said that the man was lucky to be alive.

“If we hadn’t have already been out at flooding, it could’ve been a lot worse,” he said. “That could’ve been another eight minutes that he was unconscious inhaling smoke.”

It was a busy couple of days for fire fighters in the locality as they helped out with flooding in several areas and they have been praised for their quick reactions both in this instance and during the floods in general.

Enniscorthy fire service were praised for their quick reaction to the blaze which took place during the worst of the flooding.