City Fire Brigade deal with dangerous roof on Barrack Street

Cork City Fire Brigade crews were called out to deal with a potentially dangerous building on Barrack Street in the midst of the weather warning on Wednesday, as old roofing material on the building had come loose.

Two crews from Anglesea Street Fire Station, as well as personnel from Building Control, were dispatched to Barrack Street to make the building safe.

The callout came in the midst of a Status Yellow Rain warning in place for Cork until midnight, which was downgraded from a Status Orange warning earlier on Wednesday.

The callout also comes just two days after the City Fire Brigade dealt with a fire at a derelict house on the North side of the city on Boyce’s Street.

Victor Shine, Second Officer at Cork City Fire Brigade said heavy, old felt used as roofing material for the building on Barrack’s Street was coming off, and crews had to respond to make it safe for the public.

A video uploaded to social media by Cork City Fire Brigade shows crew on a platform above the old budling, dislodging dangerous parts of the roof as they fell three storeys to the street below.

The narrow city centre street was closed during the day as crews responded to the callout, and the area around the immediate vicinity of the building remains cordoned off.

Mr Shine said that the property owner will now have to complete follow-up works to make the rest of the building safe.

Mr Shine added that bad weather in recent days could have been a contributing factor to the state of the roof of the property, but that in general the Fire Service are aware of a lot of old buildings in the area.