The driver of Cork’s Lord Mayor has been praised for knocking on the door of the city’s main fire station early yesterday to raise the alarm about a nearby fire.
Fire officers said Finbarr Archer’s alertness and quick-thinking, and the fact that the fire was just yards away from the fire station, helped prevent more extensive damage to the L’Atitude wine bar and cafe.
An investigation is now underway to establish the cause of the blaze but early indications suggest the fire started accidentally on the second floor of the building.
The alarm was raised at around 8.30am when smoke was seen billowing from the roof of the L’Atitude building, at the corner of Anglesea St and Union Quay, and from adjoining buildings, including Charlies.
Guests staying at the new Maldron Hotel across the river on the South Mall were among several people who dialled 999 to raise the alarm.
Fire control in Limerick got reports of fire in several buildings on Union Quay as the smoke seeped from building to building.
Mr Archer, who was standing outside City Hall on early-morning St Patrick’s Day duty for the Lord Mayor, had already spotted smoke coming from L’Atitude and had run to raise the alarm.
“I saw smoke coming from a chimney stack first and thought it was unusual at that hour of the morning, and then I could see the smoke getting thicker and thicker,” he said.
Then I heard fierce crackling, and a series of mini explosions from inside, like cylinders exploding or something, so I ran down to the fire station and knocked on the door and told them there was a fire up the road.
Several units responded, and drove from the fire station the few hundred yards up Anglesea St to the scene. They were on the scene within seconds.
Mr Archer said that, even in that short time, the fire had taken hold inside the building and plumes of thick smoke were billowing from the roof.
Firefighters deployed two hydraulic platforms to tackle the fire from above as fire crews wearing breathing apparatus entered from the ground floor.
They had the blaze under control within 45-minutes and managed to contain most of the damage to the upper area of the building.
Adjoining properties suffered some smoke damage.
There were no reports of any injuries but it is understood a woman, who had entered the building earlier to start cleaning work, was treated at the scene for shock.