Blaze at wedding hotel

A hotel popular with wedding couples was almost totally destroyed by a fire in County Kildare last night.

The fire in the Red House Hotel in Newbridge began in a chip pan in the kitchen at 5.26pm.

The first fire brigade unit arrived nine minutes later and began tackling the blaze. Firefighters from Naas, Newbridge and Monasterevin, as well as the army fire brigade unit from the Curragh also took part in the operation.

There were four fire tenders, two water tankers and one hydraulic platform.

Kildare Chief Fire Officer Michael Fitzsimmons said in total more than 30 personnel took part.

“The blaze was brought under control at 9.25pm,” he said. “There was extensive damage to the hotel. It was almost totally destroyed.”

The Red House Hotel operated a restaurant and a function room, which was used for weddings at weekends.

Mr Fitzsimmons said the fire had spread quickly from the kitchen to the roof of the hotel, where there was a lot of flammable material.

“We had people in the building from very early on but we had to an eye on what was going on over their heads,” he said.

Firefighters had to be withdrawn from the building at 8pm when the roof of the two storey part of the hotel caught light.

Gardaí and ambulance personnel attended the scene but there were no injuries.

Fire brigade personnel from Maynooth were moved to Naas to provide cover.