VIDEO: Warning about leaving fires unattended after flat gutted

Senior fire officers have issued a warning about leaving lighted open fires unattended after a city flats complex was gutted in a huge blaze yesterday.

Firefighters believe the blaze, which destroyed a three-storey flat in the Bellview complex off Cork’s Old Youghal Road, started after a fire, lit in a fireplace on the first floor of the building earlier in the morning, was unattended when the occupants left their apartment some time after 9am.