This article is from page 20 of the 2013-08-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
GARDAÍ are investigating the circumstances of the latest fire at a € 2.2 million Traveller accommodation site in Ennis.
Three housing units were damaged following an incident of alleged criminal damage at the Beechpark halting site last week. Gardaí say an accelerant was used to douse the buildings but it did not ignite for some reason. However considerable smoke damage was caused to the building’s interiors. No one was hurt in the incident as the Beechpark site is currently vacant. Clare County Council was in the process of a € 15,000 refurbishment of the property when it was damaged
In a statement, a council spokesman said the costs the damage had yet to be ascertained. He explained, “The site was vacant at the time. The council was in process of refurbishing the property when it was damaged. The contract value was € 15,865 excluding VAT.
The contractor had just commenced on site therefore the actual cost of works undertaken will be substan- tially less than the contract value. The cost of the damage has yet to be ascertained. However, the roof and parts of the interior ceiling were badly damaged by fire.”
The Beechpark development was completed in 2004 at a cost of € 2.2 million.
In February, Clare County Council revealed that it had no plans to refurbish or rebuild Beechpark following a series of arson attacks on Traveller accommodation.
The council had been forced to install CCTV cameras to prevent against further attacks.
The latest incident at Beechpark comes just days after a separate suspicious fire at another vacant Traveller accommodation site in Ennis.
The incident occurred at around 1.50am on Saturday, August 17, when a vacant house at the Ashline site on Kilrush Road caught fire in what Gardaí described as “suspicious circumstances”.
The fire service attended the scene and the Gardaí in Ennis are investigating the circumstances of the fire. This is the second time this year that fire has broken out at the Ashline site, which cost € 1.7 million to build.