Lucky escape as young woman and child run from Longford house blaze
Gardaí are not treating as suspicious a house fire in Longford last weekend in which a young woman and her little sister were forced to run for cover from an adjacent property, the Leader understands.
This newspaper's website, longfordleader.ie broke details last Friday night of how a blaze engulfed a two storey house in the Ardnacassa area of the county town.
Emergency services rushed to the scene and battled to wrestle control of the fire and prevent it spreading to houses either side of it.
Despite those efforts proving successful, substantial damage was caused to the house where the blaze broke out.
The Leader visited the scene the following morning ahead of a technical examination being carried out.
As our photographs show, the seriousness of the blaze caused the entire roof to cave in with significant damage being evident to both an upstairs bedroom and stairwell of the property.
In the midst of that fallout, it emerged a young woman and her younger sister were lucky to escape unscathed from an adjacent house shortly after the fire broke out at around 8:30pm.
A number of neighbours declined to go on record when approached earlier with several others insisting they were either out or unaware the fire had broken out when emergency services arrived yesterday evening.
One local resident, however, told of how her friend and younger sister were lucky to have escaped from the house directly next door.
"My friend lives there and she was in the house at the time," she said.
"She was in the house with her little sister and she heard the fire alarm go off but her neighbours sometimes fight and she thought it wasn't anything until she looked outside when she saw the fire."
A garda spokesperson confirmed that while an investigation was underway, the precise circumstances behind what may have caused the blaze were still at an early stage.
However, the Leader understands detectives have all but ruled out the prospect of foul play being involved.
“Gardaí and emergency services attended the scene of a fire in Longford on the 15th September 2023 at 8.30pm.” said the spokesperson.
“No injuries have been reported at this time.
“No offense has been disclosed.