Vigilance of staff in Cork city shops targeted by arson praised by fire brigade officer

A Cork city fire officer has praised the efforts of staff in shops targeted by arson for how they responded to the incidents.

Five units of Cork City Fire Brigade attended the scenes of five fires at various retail stores across Cork city centre yesterday evening.

The alarm was raised shortly before 5.15pm when Cork City Fire Brigade received a call to respond to a fire on Patrick St.

The initial call was followed by four calls at the various other premises in the city centre.

Life Style Sports on Patrick St, Superdry also on Patrick St, Next on Opera Lane, Boots on Half Moon St and TK Maxx on Cornmarket St were all impacted.

Speaking on the Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s RedFM, second officer at Cork City Fire Brigade, Victor Shine, said incidents such as what occurred yesterday evening are “extremely rare” and commended the prompt response from staff working in the affected stores.

“Arson in the city is very unusual.

“We would occasionally get a single event but multiple events like this are extremely rare and in fairness I must congratulate the staff… for how they dealt with the situation extinguishing fire, keeping the situation under control and using evacuation protocol and protecting the members of the public in their store. 

“Luckily, there was nobody injured in this,” he said.

While a major conflagration was avoided, Mr Shine said businesses are now grappling with the cost implications of the fires.

“It had the potential to be an awful lot worse, but it’s the smoke damage to the rest of the stock – you’re not going to buy clothing which is smelling of smoke off the shelf – you’re saying that this product now has been damaged and there’s a cost implication to that.

“We had to use positive pressure ventilation to actually vent these premises as well to get rid of the smell of smoke and the product and there’ll be a big clean-up operation as well that’ll have to follow on.” 

Mr Shine said Garda investigations into the matter are ongoing, but that it is possible that just one person was involved in the incidents.

“It possibly is a viable option that someone could go from shop to shop causing this mayhem in the city,” he said.

A Garda spokesperson told The Echo:

“Gardaí are investigating a number of incidents of criminal damage by fire at retail premises in Cork city centre on Sunday 25th February 2024.

“No serious damage and no injuries were reported.

“Technical examinations have been conducted by the Scenes of Crime Unit.

“Investigations are ongoing.”