Vintage wines destroyed in warehouse blaze
Around 60,000 bottles of fine wine were destroyed in a blaze which gutted a massive warehouse overnight.
The sound of corks popping on vintages worth up to €500 each could be clearly heard as fire-fighters fought in vain to save the merchant’s premises in Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
Paddy Keogh, owner of Wines Direct, said his warehouse in Green Road was destroyed by the inferno as he prepared for his busiest time of the year.
“It’s like farming – there’s a harvest season, and Christmas is our harvest season,” he said.
Thousands of wooden cases to protect the wines during shipping are believed to have added to the intensity of the blaze, which took more than two hours to bring under control.
No-one was injured but two fire units remained at the scene overnight to maintain safety in the area.
A guard on duty at the nearby Columb Military barracks alerted the fire service after noticing plumes of smoke billowing from the 10,000 square foot premises at around 9pm yesterday.
Mr Keogh said he could hear the sound of corks popping off his stock as he frantically tried to rescue computer records to allow him continue business.
“We were lucky we managed to rescue our computer equipment and our records that were on software,” he said.
“We had good procedures in place that if something like this happened we could do that.”
Fortunately, about 90% of the business’s stock is kept in bond in Dublin and Mr Keogh assured his staff that they would not be losing their jobs over the fire.
“We employ 22 people and I want to assure them, as I was trying to do all last night, it’s business as usual – or as near as usual from tomorrow,” he vowed.
“We’ve located a new warehouse overnight, we’re trying to get our phones re-directed, we’re trying to get our computer re-established and we’ll have stock down here hopefully tomorrow.”
Mr Keogh had no idea what caused the outbreak but said that everything seemed to be fine when he locked up the warehouse less then two hours before the blaze was spotted.
The fire service is expected to carry out a forensic examination to establish the cause.
