Man jumps out of upstairs window to escape fire

A MAN cheated death yesterday when he jumped from the upstairs window of a house which was engulfed in flames.

And in a second fire incident in Co Limerick, seamen fled a banana boat in the port of Foynes after a blaze broke out in a cargo hold.

A non-national received only minor injuries when he jumped to safety into a front garden of a house in Castleconnell. The terrace house at Main Street was completely gutted. An adjacent pub and another private house were also damaged.

Up to 35 fire fighters from the Limerick County and City fire services dealt with the Castleconnell and Foynes fires which both occurred at around 7.30am.

Twenty fire fighters from the city and Cappamore, under assistant chief fire officer Paul McMahon, fought the Castleconnell fire for more than four hours before bringing it under control.

County Limerick chief fire officer Carmel Kirby and assistant chief fire officer Ken Crowley dealt with the ship fire with a team of 15 fire fighters from Foynes and Rathkeale.

A fire service spokesman said: “They were two very serious incidents at the same time and required a lot of resources to tackle them.”

And in another incident, a crewman was airlifted from a vessel, Atlas City, yesterday afternoon with a hand injury.

The vessel was anchored near Scattery Island on the Shannon Estuary, having discharged a cargo of coal at Foynes earlier. The injured seaman was treated at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital for a shoulder injury.