Gardaí and several units of the Dublin Fire Brigade tackled a major blaze in Terenure, Dublin 6 this afternoon.
The fire is understood to have started in the roof of a house on Terenure Road East before quickly spreading to several adjoining buildings.
“All that’s left I’d say are the clothes on my back,” said Andrew Troy, whose home was one of a number destroyed by the fire.
Mr Troy who shares a rented five-bedroom house at 71 Terenure Road East with four others looked on in shock as five units of the Dublin Fire Brigade struggled to contain the blaze which broke out in the terrace of eight houses.
“I’m just on my way home from work now,” said Mr Troy who is originally from Ennis.
“I got a call from a friend in London who said the house was on fire. He said my housemate was knocking on neighbours’ doors to get them out onto the street.”
Mr Troy said his neighbours in the houses which are built over three floors included “an older man, a lady and her daughter, a family, a couple and some Polish people.”
A water tanker and an incident command unit also attended the fire though high winds are said to have hampered efforts to contain the blaze.
Although gardaí said there were no serious injuries, three people were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation and a fireman was treated in hospital for burns to his hand.
Residents believe the fire started in the upper storey of one of the 1980s-built houses. The homes which have “mansard” or dormer type roofs with bedrooms built into the roof are located across the road from St Joseph’s Church and Boys National School. One parent who picked her son up from the school at 2.30pm said there was “no sign of a fire” at that time.
A Polish woman who lives across from the terrace said, “I saw smoke and went outside. It was coming from across the road. I called 999 at about 3.15pm.”
“There were loud banging noises and roof tiles were shooting off the roofs of some of the houses and flying across the road.”
The woman said the fire appeared to be coming from the top storey of second last house on the terrace, near the corner of Greenmount Road and Terenure Road East.
“A guy ran out of the houses and started to alarm people…then there were a few guys knocking on doors along the terrace. One young guy kicked in one of the doors.”
The woman said the fire, which initially spread along the terrace in the direction of Rathgar, then started to spread in both directions. “The wind did all the work.”
Gardaí closed the road, and a number of diversions are in place.
