Blackpool bakery blaze due to fridge’s ‘electrical fault’

The owner of a bakery in Blackpool which has been destroyed in a fire has spoken of her devastation, but also the decency of the local community.

“I’m absolutely devastated, I think I’m still in shock. I’m trying to deal with stuff and get through it,” Healy’s Bakery owner Rachel Healy told The Echo.

“It was an electrical fault in a fridge. We had paper bags and cake boxes stacked at the back of the shop. Gardaí showed me the video, and you can see the spark flying out of the back of the fridge, and then another spark. In 10 minutes, the whole place goes on fire,” she added.

Emergency services attended the scene just after 6.30am today. Around 20 people were evacuated from surrounding apartments as a precaution, but nobody required hospital treatment.

The bakery, located on 94 Great William O’Brien St, has been owned by the same family for six generations, and was established in 1862, making them Cork’s oldest bakery.

“We have no roof now, we’re waiting on an insurance assessor to come down,” Ms Healy continued.

“We’re the oldest bakery in the country, 162 years. I’m a sixth generation baker, I was there 35 years and my father was there before me.

“There was seven of us working here, and we’re all here forever and a day.

“They’re all as devastated as me.

“God help me, people are so kind and so decent, there’s been just an outpouring of support. People have my deepest gratitude. We’re a bit in limbo, as we don’t know how long we’ll be out of action.”

Members of the Blackpool community have also said they are “devastated” and “shocked” following the fire damage.

“It’s a terrible thing to happen, especially right at the beginning of the year, so it’s really awful timing, and awful for all the staff too,” Louise Jordan, the chairperson of the Blackpool Community Centre, told The Echo.

“This will be a huge loss for the community. People go in there for their cakes and she has a coffee machine.

“We’re hopeful she will build it back up.”

Tom Dennehy, the owner at Dennehy’s Fish Shop, said it was “very shocking altogether”.

“I’m absolutely devastated for Rachel.

“Business is so hard at the moment anyway with the costs, every business is finding it difficult, and to come into that this morning must have been terrible.

“We all help each other out in the area and look out for each other as best we can, so it’s really devastating. That everything could be grand yesterday then gone today – words can’t describe it.”