Gardaí investigate cause of shoe shop blaze

GARDAÍ are keeping an open mind on the cause of a fire which gutted a shop early on Tuesday morning in north Cork and destroyed a BMW parked nearby.

However, Gardaí in Kanturk say that another car was deliberately burnt-out in the town hours earlier, which they are treating as arson.

Inspector Declan O’Sullivan said the shoe shop, Shoebiz, had only recently opened and the building and its contents had been “extensively damaged”.

Two fire brigade units rushed to the scene after the alarm was raised at 2.30am.

They remained there until about 6am.

The fire service was unable to prevent the blaze spreading to an ’09-registration grey BMW 520 parked nearby. It was believed to be worth in excess of €40,000.

Inspector O’Sullivan said Gardaí are awaiting the outcome of the forensic examinations.

However, the inspector said there was no doubt that a fire which burnt out another car in the town was started maliciously.

It gutted a ’95-registered Nissan, which was parked at St Theresa’s Place.

That fire was spotted at 11.30pm on the previous night, Monday.

“Youths were seen running from the scene. There was also a theft of garden materials from St Theresa’s Place. These items were recovered nearby,” the inspector said.

He said the St Theresa’s Place incidents were likely to be linked, but there was nothing to indicate at this stage if they were also connected to the shop and car burning at Watergate Street.

“We are anxious to speak to anybody who was in the Watergate Street area, or in the nearby SuperValu car park between 2.30am and 3am and who may have seen anything suspicious. We also want to talk to anybody who saw suspicious activity at St Theresa’s Place,” Inspector O’Sullivan said.

Anybody with information is asked to contact Kanturk Garda Station at 029-20687.