Port of Cork blaze prompts calls for air monitors and emergency communications

The failure of local air monitors to provide real-time information during a major fire has been described as a “massive own goal” for the Environmental Protection Agency 

Looking across at a large fire at a grain storage facility at the Ringaskiddy Deepwater Berth, Co Cork. Picture: Denis Minihane.

Environmentalists want the State to install air quality monitors in one of Ireland’s most industrialised zones after a massive blaze in Cork Harbour sparked health fears and criticism of emergency communications.

They said the huge smoke plume from the R&H Hall fire at the Port of Cork’s deepwater compound in Ringaskiddy shows what could happen if there was an accident or explosion at a chemical plant in the area or at the proposed Indaver incinerator.