'Weathering' blamed for falling plasterwork from Cork city building

Fire fighters attend the scene of an 'at-risk' building on Liberty St, Cork on Tuesday evening. Pic Cork Fire Brigade Twitter

Weathering was most likely responsible for loose plasterwork falling from a building in Cork city centre last night.

Cork City Council confirmed this morning that it is now treating the ‘at-risk building’ incident on Liberty St, which forced the temporary closure of a section of the street, as a minor incident.

No structural issues with the building have been identified.

In a statement, city officials said members of Cork City Fire Brigade, officials from its building control department, as well as representatives of the building’s owners, attended the scene and established that the incident involved loose plasterwork.

Any remaining loose plasterwork was removed, the council said.

1/ Update: Liberty St was temporarily closed to traffic yesterday eve due to a minor incident involving loose plasterwork on a building. Any remaining loose plasterwork was removed. @CorkCityFire and Building Control Dept attended the scene as did the building owners’ reps. pic.twitter.com/rC3NBqAwoj

— Cork City Council (@corkcitycouncil) August 26, 2020

“The loose plasterwork was likely to have been caused by weathering. It’s planned that any necessary works will be undertaken by the owners,” it added.

It follows a number of incidents involving at-risk buildings in the city centre in recent months where structural issues were identified.