'The whole area was one mass of flames'
Volunteers who were garrisoned at the Imperial Hotel, above Clerys, later gave these accounts to the Bureau of Military History.
We started breaking all the windows and barricading them and the doors...We started breaking open the walls...some of these walls at Clerys were three feet thick
- Kevin McCabe
[On Thursday] Clerys and the Imperial Hotel were ignited by the fire which consumed [the pharmacy] Hoyte's...I had the extraordinary experience of seeing the huge plate-glass windows of Clerys stores run molten into the channel from the terrific heat
- Oscar Traynor
The fire continued to approach on us and we were virtually beaten out of the upper portion of Clerys and the Imperial Hotel...We remained until the ceiling of the first floor was falling all around us
- Frank Thornton
The Imperial Hotel then went on fire and the men had to evacuate. The method they adopted was that they wrapped themselves round with big mattresses and ran across the street
- Eamon Bulfin
The fires had now extended from Clerys right down to Hopkins' corner [corner of Sackville Street and Eden Quay]...the whole area was one mass of flames...what a change had come over the scene since Monday and Tuesday!
- Frank Burke