Woman hospitalised after fire in Harbour Street

One woman was hospitalised and two other male occupants of a house in Harbour Street, Mullingar were rescued at lunchtime today (Wednesday) after fire spread through the building rapidly.

The heroic actions of a trio of local men helped to ensure that there was not a more serious outcome to the blaze. Two of the three, postman Leon Matthews and Chris Carr, were driving past at about 2pm and, on spotting flames coming from the building, sprung into action.

As firefighters and ambulance personnel went to the scene, Chris Carr alerted staff and customers in Kerrigan’s pub and a ladder was brought to the scene. Along with Ross Brunton, Chris climbed the ladder and reached first floor occupants, Tony Flynn and Georgie Regan, and ushered them to safety.

At the same time, Leon was attempting to gain entry to the front of building but was driven back by the smoke. On a second attempt he met the ground floor occupant, Colette O’Dwyer, who was suffering from smoke inhalation, and he helped her to the safety of the pavement.

Ms O’Dwyer was attended to by paramedics before being taken to the Midlands Regional Hospital in Mullingar for further treatment.

Firefighters, wearing breathing apparatus, searched the entire dwelling but none of the other occupants were home when the blaze broke out.

A full garda investigation into the cause of the outbreak is under way.