Cove Bar blaze
Thursday, 9 October 2008
A close up of the damage left behind after blaze.
A MIXTURE of hard work, weather conditions and luck helped save two Ballyronan businesses from destruction at the hands of fire this week.
On Monday afternoon (October 6) a fire swept through living quarters above The Cove Bar in Ballyronan. The owner of the premises, Seamus Donnelly, was contacted and he immediately called the Fire Brigade.
“I phoned the Fire Brigade at 3.05pm and they arrived at 3.14," he said, adding that the wait "felt more like 5 hours".
Mr Donnelly commended the work of the fire brigade who were able to restrict the fire to upstairs at the front of the building.
“The fire brigade did great, at one time it looked like they would have to pull out because it was getting too dangerous. Fair play to them though they stuck at it."
The bar downstairs escaped with only smoke and water damage.
“Upstairs is gutted but the off license and bar have hardly got touched. It is mainly water damage from the run off. It's very lucky." said Mr Donnelly. It has since been confirmed that the middle lounge area and back bar survived the blaze relatively unscathed at all and will be open for business as usual.
Mr Donnelly was thankful for small mercies, "We're lucky we've got this back part to the bar, lots of other places would have to close" he said.
The Mace shop that adjoins The Cove Bar received little or no damage thanks to a combination of Fire Service work and weather conditions.
Mrs Marie Ryans who runs the shop with her family said, "It was great work by the fire brigade, another 10 minutes and both of us would be gone (Shop and Bar), but the wind helped a bit, it was blowing the other way from our shop."
The shop itself was able to open at 10.00am the next morning, Tuesday, October 7, after a health inspector gave the all clear. Mrs Ryans and her husband also have an apartment above the shop which sustained minor smoke damage.
Mrs Ryan maintains that all parties have something to be thankful for, "We're all lucky it didn't happen during the night, if it had none of us would be about to talk about it now."
A spokesperson for the Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that they received a call reporting fire at the Cove Bar, Shore Road, Ballyronan at approximately 3.08pm on Monday afternoon and immediately deployed three fire appliances and one aerial appliance, which is the tallest vehicle available.
According to the spokesperson fire appliances did not leave the scene until approximately 5.10pm.
She explained that the fire was in one of the rooms on the upper floor of the bar building which led to it becoming heavily smoke logged with minor smoke damage also being caused to the upper floor of the adjoined shop and flats as a result.
The spokesperson confirmed that the cause of the fire is believed to have been accidental and said there are no plans for further investigation at this time.
