{"id":442503,"date":"2026-05-11T01:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T01:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/442503\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T01:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T01:16:09","slug":"businessmans-premises-destroyed-by-waterford-fire-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/442503\/","title":{"rendered":"Businessman\u2019s premises destroyed by Waterford fire \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Investigations are under way after a large fire broke out in a Waterford<\/a> city industrial estate on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n

The blaze took hold in the old Jute factory in the Tycor Business Centre area of the city around 6.30pm. The area is surrounded by a number of homes and businesses.<\/p>\n

One business owner who watched as his premises was destroyed by the blaze was \u201cstill numb\u201d on Sunday as he processed seeing \u201ca lifetime\u2019s work down the drain in minutes\u201d. <\/p>\n

Andrew Hepburn, founder of DG Foods, a wholesale supplier to restaurants and cafes, stored stock at the building.<\/p>\n

Scores of firefighters from several fire units from the city and surrounding towns of Dungarvan, Dunmore East, Portlaw and Tramore attended the scene and worked through the night to bring the blaze under control.<\/p>\n

Hepburn said when he arrived at the scene on Saturday the fire seemed small. He let firefighters into the end of the building where his premises was located. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole thing just went within 20 minutes. All our stock, fridges, forklifts, we thought they were safe but they were gone within minutes,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were standing outside watching, thinking it wasn\u2019t really happening, a lifetime\u2019s work down the drain in minutes.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said he had spoken to local public representatives on Sunday, asking for \u201crelief funding along the lines of that given when businesses are destroyed by floods\u201d. <\/p>\n

Echoing him, Scott Hamell, founder of recording and mixing studio Mono-Hazard, said he would \u201clove if anything can be done by Government\u201d. <\/p>\n

He rented a unit in the building and kept guitars, pedals, recording and mixing equipment there, which he shared with \u201cup-and-coming local bands\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am still a bit shocked, struggling to let it all settle in. I am absolutely heartbroken. I didn\u2019t have insurance because we weren\u2019t set up as a business. We were just trying to set up a community,\u201d Hamell said.<\/p>\n

Caroline O\u2019Toole, who runs sewing school Speak in Stitches, was hopeful her unit was not badly damaged. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust going by the aerial photographs, the roof is still there where my unit is. There might be smoke damage and I suppose the building will have to undergo construction, so we will be closed for some time. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment I am just cancelling classes for next week. I am relieved. There are a lot of people in a much worse situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearby residents were evacuated on Saturday evening while electricity and gas supplies to surrounding buildings and homes were turned off as a precaution. Garda\u00ed said no injuries had been reported.<\/p>\n

The fire broke out close to Walsh Park, where the Munster hurling championship game between Waterford and Cork was coming to an end, with large flames visible.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Sunday morning, Waterford City and County Council said the fire had been brought under control. \u201cNo casualties have been reported. However, the building has been extensively damaged and fire service operations continue at the site this morning. Waterford City and County Council is advising members of the public to avoid the area as operations continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irish Liverpool fan injured in Rome attack presents thank-you GAA jersey to Mo SalahOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The cause of the fire is not known but garda\u00ed, the local authority and fire services are investigating.<\/p>\n

Local Sinn F\u00e9in TD Conor D McGuinness added his thoughts were with the firefighters who battled the blaze and all the residents and businesses nearby dealing with smoke, power disruption and \u201cvery real anxiety\u201d.<\/p>\n

McGuinness said: \u201cThere is concern locally around air quality and possible asbestos risks. Please follow the advice to avoid the area and stay indoors with windows and doors shut if smoke is nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Investigations are under way after a large fire broke out in a Waterford city industrial estate on Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,6513,41846],"class_list":["post-442503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-waterford","tag-waterford-city-and-county-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}