Two recovering after butcher shop explosion

TWO people were recovering from injuries yesterday following an explosion in a butcher’s shop.

The two, a man and a woman, were literally blown across a Dublin street when the entire front of the shop exploded.

They were walking past Delaney Brothers Butchers in Harold’s Cross on Saturday night when a blast blew out the front window and metal shutter of the shop.

The owner of a shop across the road from the butcher’s captured pictures of the fire seconds after the explosion.

“I live across the road and was sitting watching television when the floor shook, literally shook,” said Jack Clarke, owner of the Washboard Launderette.

“When I looked out the window the front of Delaney’s butchers was half way out to the middle of the street, both the front window and the shutters.”

He said two people, both middle aged, were caught up in the explosion.

“The man was literally thrown into the street and had an injury to his leg and the woman had an injury to her head, it was cut,” he said.

He said there were two apartments above the butcher’s, one occupied by a man, the other by three girls.

All were safely evacuated with the help of neighbours and assistants from the nearby Centra supermarket.

“It was dreadful, frightening,” said Mr Clarke. “What frightened me was the speed of it, I reckon it spread in four minutes.”

Dublin Fire Brigade said they were called to the fire at Harold’s Cross Road at 8.18pm. The two injured people were brought to St James’s Hospital.

A garda spokesman said the cause of the fire was being investigated.

“The initial reports suggested a possible gas leak, but it was not gas,” he said. “When heat builds up in a sealed room it can cause glass to explode.”

Meanwhile, an army bomb squad was called out to a security alert in Blessington, Co Wicklow.

The alert - a suspect device under a car on the village’s main street - turned out to be a false alarm.