This article is from page 4 of the 2013-11-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
A CLARE secondary school was the subject of a suspected arson attack on Halloween night that resulted in the destruction of a resource classroom and significant damage to another. The interior of the prefab classroom at Ennis Community College was gutted in the blaze, which began shortly after 9pm on Thursday. Mindless thugs also took time to break windows in a second prefab unit, which is used for specialised classes for deaf students. Clare Fire Services were called to the scene at 9.10pm and worked hard to prevent the fire reaching the main building on the secondary school complex. Part of the nearby building suffered some external fire damage however, with part of the building also subjected to internal smoke damage. The intense heat from the fire also melted the PVC window frames. It is not yet known the cost of the damage, but a number of computers as well as the entire inside of the first prefab classroom was destroyed. There was no apparent attempt to set fire to the Unit for the Deaf after the windows were smashed with what is believe to have been a fire extinguisher. Gardaí sealed off and preserved the scene overnight while a full technical examination was carried out on Friday afternoon. Gardai in Ennis are continuing to investigate the fire, which they have described as suspicious. Two units of Ennis Fire Brigade also attended the fire at Ennis Community College. They were alerted to the incident by Munster Regional Communication System at 9.10pm and arrived at the scene just eight minutes later. The fire service got the fire under control in just over an hour and the “incident was closed down” at 10.28pm. Anyone with any information on the incident is asked to contact Ennis Garda Station.