Freak house fire blamed on mirror
A make-up mirror reflecting sunlight on to bedclothes caused the spontaneous combustion, firemen discovered.
The fire ignited after Brendan Holland, returning from an overseas holiday, opened a window in the thick smoke-filled room at his Cork city home. No one was in the house at the time.
“Just before the bed combusted, the heat in the room was unbelievable,” he said.
Mr Holland and his partner, Dominique Tregaro, who had been holidaying in the Canary Islands, were relieved no one was injured in the fire last weekend.
“House alarms were ringing as we arrived and we met billowing white smoke as we entered the hall.
“I thought, at first, that an amplifier on a ground floor had melted, but Dominique discovered the smoke came from upstairs. I shot into my daughter, Phoebe Maye’s, room and my breath was just taken away by the smoke. I just slung the windows open and the bed combusted.”
The couple used domestic fire extinguishers to quench the flames in the Georgian house on the Lee Road. Damage was confined to the bedroom.
Fire brigade units had been alerted but, in an equally bizarre chain of events, firemen from Anglesea Street had to ask a unit from Ballincollig to the scene after being delayed by roadworks approved by the city council.
Mr Holland said fire crews were very efficient and professional when they arrived. However, his concern was that the road, on which there was also a 130-bed nursing home, was completely blocked. Prior to arriving home on Saturday evening, Mr Holland said he had also confronted the closed road and was forced to take a diversion.
Cork City Council said yesterday it was reviewing its policy on road works following the incident. Head of traffic Pat Casey said that, as part of the licence granted for the roadworks, the contractor was obliged to provide steel plates to permit access for the emergency services.
“In this particular incident, workmen told the fire brigade that it could take five to 10 minutes to lay the steel plates,” he said. “The fire tenders from Anglesea Street decided to take a diverted route to get to the fire, but were held up by oncoming cars on the Currakippane Road.”
Mr Casey said: “This was the first time the council and the fire service experienced such a problem. Normally, in the city, there are plenty of diversion routes. Provision had been made for steel plates to be provided, but we are going to review our policy on providing access for emergency vehicles.”
