SUSPICION surrounds the circumstances of a fire that gutted an unoccupied landmark county Limerick building in the early hours of this Tuesday morning.
Gardai are investigating the origins of the fire at Worrall’s Inn in Castleconnell after three units of Limerick City Fire Service, together with a unit from Cappamore were called to the scene after 3:30am where they battled the blaze for almost four hours.
Gardai remained at the scene for a further 30 minutes after the Fire and Rescue service units returned to their respective bases. However, two units were redeployed to the scene to provide further assistance at the scene and remained there for some time on Tuesday.
Newly elected to the merged single authority, Cllr Shane Clifford who lives in the village of Castleconnell said that it was very sad to see the historic building destroyed.
“It was a key focus of mine to seek a new tenant for this premises and I had been doing a lot of work with regards to that recently.
Mr Clifford said that the building, which was unoccupied for some time, “is steeped in history and could have brought huge employment and life to the village”.
However he thanked the community and the fire services for their quick reaction to contain the fire and the damage caused.
A garda technical and forensic examination is underway to determine the cause of the blaze.
