Arson suspected after spate of weekend fires
Firefighters tackle the blaze in the disused gypsum factory last night. Photo: Garry O'Neill
A BLAZE that engulfed a disused factory last night is believed to have been started maliciously.
It came as the Arklow Fire Service dealt with deliberately-set fires all weekend, and a separate blaze burned through the town's marsh on Saturday night and Sunday before dying down.
Emergency services were last night called to the old gypsum factory on the north quay in Arklow town, Co Wicklow, at 7.45pm.
Two units fought for more than an hour to bring the fire under control in the former dry-lining plant.
The disused building is partly constructed with asbestos but nearby marina apartments did not have to be evacuated because the wind was blowing the smoke out to sea rather than towards the homes.
The building was badly damaged by the fire, which rapidly spread to piles of wooden pallets nearby.
But within an hour of the fire at the gypsum factory, another blaze started, apparently deliberately, on the marsh and firemen were faced with the choice of dividing their numbers and fighting both the factory blaze and the marsh fire simultaneously.
- Grainne Cunningham
Irish Independent
