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Three businesses count cost of fires

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

Police are seeking to speak to three young males seen in the Harbour area of Kilkeel before the blaze, confirmed as arson by police, tore through the empty premises on Wednesday night. 03138im

THREE businesses are now counting the cost of crippling blazes.
Firefighters tackled three ferocious, yet unconnected, fires which have resulted in thousands of pounds worth of damage for three businesses.
It marks a grim start to the new year for a tyre depot business, a disused warehouse and a farm, which were the casualties of unrelated fires across the district within five days of each other.
On Sunday (15 February), around 30 firefighters dealt with a major blaze at a tyre depot on the Newry Road, near Mayobridge, then last Wednesday (11 January) up to 80 firefighting personnel spent over eight hours bringing an arson attack under control at the former Toughglass premises on the Harbour Road, Kilkeel.
And in the early hours of 11 January, the farm of the Quail family was affected. Farm machinery and livestock, believed to be worth thousands of pounds, were destroyed in a fire at a farm on the Bannview Road, Banbridge.
On Sunday around 800 tyres were destroyed in a blaze at a tyre depot on the Newry Road, about a mile and a half from Mayobridge.
Firefighters worked throughout the night to bring the fire under control to stop the spread to neighbouring homes and businesses.
At the time of going to press, fire crews intended to remain at the incident site last night (Monday) to guard over the smouldering ruins. Police are continuing their investigations into the cause of the fire and would not speculate over the cause.
SDLP Councillor Sean O'Hare praised the excellent work of the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) and the PSNI who contained the fire from spreading.
While he highlighted that he was glad no-one was injured in the incident, he added that this kind of incident raises the issue of tyre storage and whether there should be some kind of legislation brought in surrounding this issue.
“The good news is that the fire was contained but it means that we have another small business that will be out of business.
“Unfortunately the homeowners who live nearby will not be able to open their windows for a while, due to the smell of the burning tyres that will linger on," said Councillor O'Hare, who added that he was concerned that a river, which runs close by to the affected site, would now be facing a threat of pollution from the water run-off.
Meanwhile police are now treating the fire at the vacant Toughglass factory in the Harbour Road area of Kilkeel as arson.
They are keen to speak to anyone who was in the area between 5pm and 7pm on 11 January and are especially keen to speak with three young males who were seen in the area and a female jogger.
Seven fire appliances, an aerial machine and a command support unit along with supervisory officers attended the fire at approximately 7pm last Wednesday.
Described as a "major incident" by the NIFRS, it took three main jets, a hydraulic platform monitor and a hosereel jet to combat the blaze in the building.
The building was heavily smoke logged and the fire was dealt with appliances from Kilkeel, Warrenpoint, Newry and as far away as Portadown and Lisburn.
It took 80 NIFRS personnel, over eight hours to bring the fire under control however officers and appliances maintained attendance at the site for a total of 15 hours. The Harbour Road was temporarily closed to assist the firefighting operations.
The factory has been unoccupied since the closure of Toughglass in July 2011.
Police are appealing to members of the public to keep away from the building and for parents to ensure that their children do not play or enter the premises at any time as the building has been left in a dangerous condition.
In the early hours of last Wednesday (11 January) morning, a hayshed and livestock house on the Bannview Road was severely damaged in a fire.
Joe Quail, whose father owns the farm, praised the swift actions of the NIFRS as they managed to "control and contain the fire so that it did not spread to neighbouring sheds".
The NIFRS were called to the fire at around 3am by a lorry driver on the A1 who saw the flames.
Seven cattle perished in the incident while a tractor and trailer were also destroyed.
Extra resources including a water tanker were mobilised to the incident and two hosereel jets with two main jets were used to douse the flames.
The roof of the 50m long building collapsed during the fire, destroying the machinery that was housed inside.
The owners of the farm said that they are "very grateful to the fire and rescue service who arrived on scene very quickly."
“We would also like to thank our neighbours who came over at half four in the morning to see if there was anything they could do.
“This is not a nice thing to happen to anyone but fortunately no-one was injured," said Mr Quail.

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