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Several properties were impacted in the fire (Jonathan McCambridge\/PA)<\/p>\nA blaze which destroyed two houses in Co Antrim was most likely caused by embers from a nearby bonfire, the fire service has said.<\/p>\n
The incident in Greenisland, near Carrickfergus, also saw two other terraced properties damaged in the early hours of Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) Area Commander Dermot Rooney said: \u201cIn Greenisland, Carrickfergus, firefighters dealt with a row of terraced houses on fire, along with two oil tanks and a shed.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo homes were completely destroyed with damage caused to a further two properties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cause of the fire is under investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some residents had to be evacuated from their properties, and our thoughts are with those who have been affected.<\/p>\n
NIFRS spokesperson<\/p>\n
Providing an update, a NIFRS spokesperson said firefighters had responded to a number of calls about the incident.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson said: \u201cAt the height of the incident the fire involved a number of properties in a row of houses, several oil tanks and a shed.<\/p>\n
\u201cNIFRS had 45 firefighting personnel on scene, six pumping appliances, a command support unit and an aerial ladder.<\/p>\n
\u201cFive firefighting jets were in use alongside an aerial water tower.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome residents had to be evacuated from their properties and our thoughts are with those who have been affected.<\/p>\n
\u201cNIFRS would like to thank local partner agencies and the community for their help in support of the displaced families.\u201d<\/p>\n
The spokesperson added: \u201cFurther to completing our fire investigation today the most probable cause is thought to be accidental ignition due to embers from a nearby bonfire.<\/p>\n
A PSNI spokesperson said: \u201cPolice provided assistance to colleagues at the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service following a report of fire damage caused to properties in the Knockleigh Walk area of Greenisland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe report for assistance was made to police at approximately 12.20am this morning, Sunday 12th July.\u201d<\/p>\n
The PSNI said the fire \u201chas been deemed accidental at this time\u201d.<\/p>\n
Several properties were impacted in the fire (Jonathan McCambridge\/PA)<\/p>\n
Alliance Party councillor Stewart Dickson, who lives in the area, expressed his sympathies to the families affected by the fire.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI\u2019d like to express my thanks to the wonderful neighbours who opened their homes to the families whose homes were destroyed last night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole Greenisland community really rallied around the victims of the fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d also like to thank the Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service and all other agencies involved in getting the situation under control.<\/p>\n
\u201cThankfully, no one was hurt or injured; however, this has been an extremely distressing situation for the entire community in Greenisland, in which I live, and what we need now is a full and thorough investigation into exactly what caused this fire.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A blaze which destroyed two houses in Co Antrim was most likely caused by embers from a nearby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-546810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546810","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=546810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}