Huge fire destroys 200 cars
WEEKEND INFERNO PROVES TO BE ONE OF THE BIGGEST EVER INCIDENTS FOR FIRE SERVICE IN COUNTY LOUTH
UP TO 200 decommissioned vehicles (right) were destroyed after a fire ripped through Cassidy’s Car Parts in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Emergency services were alerted to the blaze by worried local residents who first spotted the flames at around 5 a.m.
The fire at the Grangebellew garage took hold at an alarming rate and Louth Chief Fire Officer Eamonn Wolfe said all local fire services were deployed to the scene, acting quickly to stop the blaze spreading to nearby properties.
‘It’s actually the biggest fire we’ve had in Louth and all our units form Drogheda, Dundalk, Ardee, Dunleer and Carlingford were there,’ he said.
UP to 200 decommissioned vehicles were destroyed after a fire ripped through Cassidy’s Car Parts in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Emergency services were alerted to the blaze by worried local residents who first spotted the flames at around 5am.
The fire at the Grangebellew garage took hold at an alarming rate and Louth Chief Fire Officer Eamonn Wolfe said all local fire services were deployed to the scene, acting quickly to stop the blaze spreading to nearby properties.
‘It’s actually the biggest fire we’ve had in Louth and all our units form Drogheda, Dundalk, Ardee, Dunleer and Carlingford were there,’ he said.
‘Our focus when we arrived was to prevent it spreading to a very large workshop building on site and also to stop it spreading to any neighbours houses.’
A spokesperson for Drogheda Gardaí said: ‘We were in attendance after the fire service alerted us to it. We attended the scene and remained there for much of Sunday while technical examinations were carried out at the site.’ He said in excess 200 decommissioned cars were on site at the time.
The spokesperson said investigations are ongoing but there was no indication at this time to say the fire had been started maliciously.
A local resident who lives in close proximity to the garage said: ‘A man up the road spotted it from his house and came to tell us. We looked out and you could see a glow but then it started spreading really fast.
‘I rang the fire brigade and they managed to control it and stop it getting in and spreading any of the houses but it was touch and go. They told us if the wind hadn’t changed it’d be a totally different story.’
Trees and fences on some of the properties situated directly behind the yard were damaged as a result of the fire and some houses suffered smoke damage internally.