Today
Eamonn writes:
Chimney stacks rise above the ashes of the row of houses in Millfield Manor, Newbridge, which were burned to the ground last night. A man has been arrested by gardai in relation to the incident.
Some residents, who did not wish to be identified, claimed that the local fire service was delayed unnecessarily by a blocked road which Kildare County Council has failed to open.
The main Kildare Fires Service HQ (pic 3) is in Newbridge, less than a kilometer from the scene of the fire. But the road between the two locations has been blocked (pic 4) by rubble and wooden barriers since the estate opened.
And according to local people, as a result, the fire tenders had to make a round trip of four kilometers to get to the scene yesterday afternoon.
Chief Fire Officer Celine Barrett, speaking to Broadsheet.ie, accepted that the blockage would cause a delay, but stated “It would only be a minute in the difference”. She said she did not believe the delay had any effect on the outcome of the fire, which started in one house and then spread to the rest, due mainly to strong winds. Ms Barrett said she understood it was the intention of the council to open the road in the near future.
Last Night: Meanwhile, In Newbridge
(Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland)
ehhh….is it just me or is there something missing from these pictures…like firewalls?
…and some eejit taking a selfie?
Possibly houses thrown up during the boom.
Definitely. Developer on these ones has since been struck off.
potentially stupid question – are there no firewalls between those houses, or did they simply collapse?
Same thought here – no firebreaks at all? Even with a bit of a delay by the firebrigade, they went up astonishingly fast.
But if an accelerant was used, might account for the extent of the damage.
If I was in the neighboring terrace, I’d have the roof space checked out immediatly.
Awful for the families concerned.
When I heard this described as “five houses damaged”, I wasn’t expecting quite that extent of the word “damaged”…
Jeez, I wouldn’t be standing too near to those chimneys. Why’d he do it??
burning desire.
Old flame was it?
Re-ignited.
Relight my fire
I think introducing the spark in the bedroom went horribly wrong.
Jesus. Never seen a modern house so throughly gutted by fire before.
I was just checking the route or possible route the fire engine may have taken. It appears to be a 2.8Km trip as suppose to the 4k described. Using Google’s time it doubled the response time from 4 mins to 8mins approx.
Via the rubble road from the station: 1.2Km
https://www.google.ie/maps/dir/Newbridge+Fire+Station/53.1699481,-6.8054729/@53.1722201,-6.8049139,16z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m9!4m8!1m5!1m1!1s0x0:0x8f12d306c86b3b3a!2m2!1d-6.795535!2d53.175017!1m0!3e2
Round trip: 2.8Km
https://www.google.ie/maps/dir/Newbridge+Fire+Station/53.1699481,-6.8054729/@53.1731639,-6.8010076,16z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m5!1m1!1s0x0:0x8f12d306c86b3b3a!2m2!1d-6.795535!2d53.175017!1m0!3e0
“I was just checking the route or possible route the fire engine may have taken”
Barry, you know that it’s not right to be doing that, don’t you? It’s not that it’s ‘wrong’, it’s just that you should be doing other things. Unless it’s your job to have checked the routes and distances, then well done. But it’s not your job, it it?
Can we get Omar to do a map?
Assuming we’re letting him come back home at all
* mumbles incoherently *
Probably couldn’t find his way home without a map anyway.
No, don’t tell Omar. It’ll just be a great big I-told-you-so moment for him.
I know this is not the right reaction but.. those chimneys look like lanky frog.
They’d look so tight in jeans
Heh :)
Another gerrybuilt disaster.
Jaysus, were the houses made of paper? That is horrific, makes me worry about the safety of my owb apartment (built 2007) when I can hear the neighbours whispering or cutting cheese…
They should make houses out of whatever they make chimneys out of. I offer up that idea for free.
+1
Those chimneys are impressive.
And while we’re at it, let’s start building planes out of whatever the black boxes are made of (Duritanium IIRC).
Someone on with Joe said they were wooden houses with brickwork on the front.
This scares the shite out of me now because I’m in a similar house built on behalf of the council which has no firewalls between each house.
Just checking through my old photos when they were being built and thats the wall next to my neighbours on the left. There is no brick wall behind that.
http://imgur.com/tln0KQX
http://imgur.com/ZTD5s9Y
Party walls can be timber framed and still form fire walls. It is designed to hold for an hour, long enough to allow escape…..still can’t guarantee for anything constructed in the boom
This houses look very flimsily built. I wonder did a Kildare County Council Fire Officer sign off on those plans?
I think some investigative journalism needs to be done here.
But oh no, this is Ireland. It won’t happen. We’ll just carry on like forgetful little idiots.
For once I agree with you.
You might find this surprising but fire officers have no role in signing off on house plans.