Fire forces evacuation at Douglas Village Shopping Centre — no injuries reported

Ireland’s second-oldest shopping centre was previously forced to close for more than a year in 2019 after a major car park fire

Mon, 13 Oct, 2025 - 14:55

David Kent and Sarah Horgan

There was relief all round on Monday after firefighters managed to avoid devastation following another car blaze at Douglas Village Shopping Centre.

The public have been praising the quick thinking actions of shopping centre staff who immediately evacuated the location.

It comes more than five years after a car park fire ravaged the centre on August 31, 2019, destroying 49 cars.

The building remained shut for 13 months after being deemed unsafe by engineers.

A demolition of the car park and subsequent rebuilding followed. The centre eventually reopened for business in November, 2020. It was later sold in September 2022 to a local businessman for €21m.

One shopper said her husband had been waiting for her to run an errand when the fire broke out on the first floor of the carpark at 2pm on Monday.

“My husband was on the first floor and he saw fire and smoke in the distance before realising there was a car on fire. Meanwhile, inside the shopping centre everybody stayed calm and it all seemed very under control.

"It was a strange sounding alarm and we immediately knew that something was really wrong.

It was hard to believe that something like this was happening again. They seem to be jinxed in that shopping centre.

"Luckily, this time it all ended well.” She praised the response of shopping centre staff and firefighters.

“I heard a guy saying that they needed to get everyone out of the shopping centre. They reacted very quickly and calmly. I met my husband on the second floor. They weren’t letting people use the escalators at that stage but I managed to make my way up there. At that point it looked like everything was under control.”

Investigations are underway to establish the cause of the fire.