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Updated 15.48
THIS IS ALL that remains of six houses at Millfield Manor in Newbridge, Co. Kildare, the afternoon following last night’s enormous fire.
The raging blaze has left practically nothing in its wake, with the gutted houses’ smokestacks standing forlornly as the only remnant of the their upper storeys.
Gardaí are continuing to question a 39-year-old man who was arrested and detained in connection with the fire last night.
Local efforts are in motion to help the victims of the fire.
A bank account has been set up for anyone who wishes to donate to the people who lost their homes in such dramatic fashion. Its details are:
Bank – Permanent TSB
Account Name – Millfield Fire Fund
Account Number – 64524172540
Cash donations will also be accepted at the local Parish Office in Newbridge.
The occupants of the houses spent last night in a local hotel.
Children aged from 18 months to 13 years have been made homeless as a result of the fire.
Appeals have been made for children’s clothes to be donated at Royston Sport Club in Newbridge.
Damien McGrath, owner of one of the destroyed houses, spoke earlier to Today FM’s Susan Keogh.
“I got a phone call off my 13-year-old son to say the house was on fire,” he said.
His friend had texted him a picture of the house in flames. I got there and there were gardaí and firemen everywhere.
We stayed til 11 last night but there was nothing more to be done. We’re left with nothing now.
My head is wrecked with the whole thing to be honest with you.
Earlier today dramatic pictures emerged of the enormous blaze as it raged yesterday evening.
The alarm was initially raised at 4pm yesterday at the estate. Gardaí and fire services attended the scene and evacuated a number of houses.
Fire crews in Kildare spent the evening battling the fire which was finally brought under control early this morning.
Video footage of the early stages of the blaze was recorded late yesterday afternoon:
No injuries have been reported as a result of the blaze.
All occupants of the properties have been accounted for and the scene is now preserved for a technical examination.
Originally published at 8.38 am
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Houses can be rebuilt, lives cannot. Thankfully there was nobody injured.
They are so lucky this didn’t happen during the night or it could have been a lot worse. For that many houses to burn down so fast, people wouldn’t have stood a chance had they been in bed asleep.
There’s something not right about this, it all happened far too fast. If I lived on that estate I’d be calling a surveyor in fast to check my house. I wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink until I found out if my house is safe or not.
If you look closely at the pictures…you will notice that there should be a solid wall(block) dividing each property …but there is nothing left except the chimney’s. The slim gap between the chimneys is where a stud wall appears to have been burned away….a solid block wall should have been there and even if it blew down there should be some remains of it between the chimneys and even a sign of where it was tied into the rear wall…but there is no sign of a solid dividing wall between each property(note both end gables of the block stayed intact but no sign of any block dividing walls at all!). Building regulations have been broken here by the building contractor and who passed this build as safe….looks like another Priory Hall building disaster.
These are timber frame houses with a thin skin of brick on the outside to give them a false solid look.
The dividing wall (party wall) should have been built in concrete block..
However during the cowboy shoddy Celtic Bubble, the timber frame house manufacturers/builders managed throw up semi detached and terraced houses with timber party walls, and some how managed to get them passed off as being “fit for the job”.
They claimed that they had these party walls covered with a “fireproof” and “soundproof” layer that made them as fireproof and soundproof as concrete block.
This tragedy shows how “Fireproof” they are.
The Building firm, the timber frame company, the engineer, the local planning office and any subcontractors involved in these Pyrohouses should be prosecuted, fined/jailed and never be allowed to build in the state again.
This building eerily looks like Auswitz’s chimney stacks.
It’s very lucky that 20 souls weren’t gassed and cremated here.
This estate and all others built in this way should be evacuated immediately.
Yes no party walls what a joke.. If their was the fire could have been contained in one house.. A free standing chimney doesn’t look to safe either… More fly by night building companies giving the good ones a bad name.. It’s elementary stuff..
Says a lot about new building regulation,delighted nobody was hurt
Spot on Prince. There will be, or at least should be a big investigation to find out how the fire spread from building to building and I’d say you are guessing the same as me. Nightmare for insurance as well trying to apportion liability. Unless the criminal who did it set alight to each house individually someone should be going to jail here and not just the builders.
Apparently there were 90+KMh winds gusting at the time, hence the rapid spread of the fire.
While this is a factor, adequate fire stopping should have prevented this. One house, two houses maybe. But 5? Something suss there.
no party firewall in the attic i would suspect..
It’s worse than that Denis…..there are no solid dividing walls at all from even the ground level to the attic between any of the properties.
Look at the picture of the two firemen standing in the debris in this link.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/it-was-like-a-warzone-families-cry-as-massive-blaze-destroys-six-homes-31110900.html
you will notice that there should be a solid wall(block) dividing the two different properties…there is nothing left except the chimney’s. The gap between the chimneys is where a stud wall appears to have been burned away….a solid wall should have been there and even if it blew down there should be some remains of it between the chimneys(especially nearer the ground) and even a sign of where it was tied into the rear wall…but there is no sign of a solid dividing wall at all.
Building regulations have been broken here by the building contractor and who passed this build as safe….looks like another Priory Hall building disaster.
It does look like there is no blockwork between the houses. That is crazy. Cant be.
Imagine you’d here every noise made by the neighbours. Would drive you crazy.
It looks to me…judging by the gap that a 6″ timber stud wall stuffed with fibreglass to deaden the sound was used…most likely double slabbed.
If you look at the lower portion of the chimney breasts you can see white spots….this is where plasterboard was ‘spotted’ (stuck) to the wall instead of using a proper sand and cement coating.
That way the builder could claim that the ‘hollowish’ sound you hear when you tap the dividing walls was because it was drylined and tap the chimney breast to get the same or similar sound.
I think we will see all other houses in that estate being checked for no proper block dividing walls and remedial work having to be carried out in the near future.
Any other houses/estates erected by that builder in the past should be checked for safety concerns.
Builders, architects, engineers who lets stuff like this pass should be removed from the building industry and some need to go to prison to let others in the building industry that this is serious and not delivering what you’re payed to do is theft and can cost lives.
Was it another priory hall mess that did actually happen? Whether it was malicious or not it shouldn’t have spread that far that quick. God bless all those families
Questions must be asked from all Local Authorities and Chief Fire officers throughout this country. How many housing estates or apartment blocks that were build in the last 15 years have been inspected and have passed all fire regulations.
I went to help a fella in Ongar those houses have been up quite a while now. he was having problems with condensation in the attic, it was like raining in there with the water. not properly insulated. thing i noticed was that the wall between the 2 houses on both sides in the attic was nothing more than plaster board stud wall and was open at the top. A fire would spread right across the row if one broke out. .
@herewegoagain
The inspection of building regs was done away with and left to builders to hire a 3rd party to sign off.
One of the most foolish and dangerous decisions made by any government. It wasn’t the current one either.
I actually don’t blame the builders either as it was obviously something that would drop standards and risk safety. Priory Hall proves you can’t blame an individual in the event of problems. I blame the current government for not reinstating a building regulation enforcement department as they can see the problem now.
Half of the hoses built (slapped up) in this country are in the same state as those that burned dowm in Newbridge and nobody cares.
Thank god no one injured
Glad no one was hurt and so sorry for anyone that would happen to, but isn’t this what home insurance is for? If my house burnt down I have it insured and wouldn’t expect a bank account to be set up for me. Am I missing something?
Yes, but you’d be screwed in the meantime with nowhere to stay, no clothes, no belongings etc.
Millfield is a relatively new area and as the article indicates it’s mostly young families in the destroyed houses. They’re also going to have to continue paying their mortgage while replacing clothes in the short term so they can go to work and the children can go to school while the insurance claim is processed.
They’re unlikely to receive massive donations and nobody is expecting enough funds to rebuild their houses.
Yeah fair enough, short sighted of me, my bad…..
House Insurance? ??
Is there any place where household goods can be donated?
Royston Sports Club in Newbridge
Quick off the mark looking for donations surely the insurance companies will cover the losses ,more to this than is been told , I’d wait for a full report on the circumstances before any money is handed over.
Claiming off insurance will take time. What do these people live on, and where, in the meantime? What do they eat, and wear?
Maybe that is what the fundraising is for.
the money will be for them to buy clothes and toiletries immediately seeing as they have absolutely nothing left at all. I doubt the insurance companies would pay out in the first couple of hours.
Insurance companies are also notorious for looking for receipts for all your possessions. How many people keep receipts for clothing and footwear once they have been warn? Whatever they receive in insurance will be nowhere near the value of what everything cosy
Cost not cosy – autocorrect!
Lolo – if they did keep receipts, which bit of soot (former receipt) would suffice for the insurance companies?
Thank god no one injured.
You can say that again.
I think the firefighters need to be commended on preventing the fire spreading to the next block, considering the proximity. See a lot of comments here with regard to donations etc. These people have been left with just the clothes on their backs – home insurance will pay out but it takes time. There is an immediate need for basic necessities here particularly for the kids.
Is that not what home and contents insurance is for?
Did travellers live in theses houses
Why would you think travellers lived in them??
Because I heard one of families on radio
Account numbers have 8 digits only. The only above is too long….
Someone woke up with heart burn this morning
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