‘It’s business as normal’ says Wallace after blaze

Eilís Ryan

A Mullingar businessman has thanked the fire crews from three towns, as well as his staff and friends for acting swiftly and saving the business when a fire broke out at his yard on Thursday night last.

“Fair play to the fire crews – who came from Castlepollard and Kilbeggan as well as Mullingar – they guided everything and we got it sorted, thanks be to God,” says Michael Wallace of Wallace Waste Solutions, who opened the doors on Friday morning for business as normal, despite the blaze.

Dramatic footage showing the flames shooting into the night sky went viral that night – and in the video, a digger is seen working through the searing inferno. The driver was Michael himself, who rushed to Clonmore Industrial Estate “like a lunatic” from a parent-teacher meeting at his daughter’s school (Loreto) after receiving a call telling him his yard was on fire.

“I’ve seen pictures of myself on the digger in the middle of it and I said: ‘Oh God bless us! What did I do that for?’”

However, he says, it was “sheer adrenaline” that prompted him to get into the digger and drag blazing waste out of a shed in a desperate – but successful – bid to stop the fire spreading.

“The fire seems to have happened at 6.30 approximately and I got the first phone call at 6.39 off one of my neighbours that the place was on fire,” he recalls.

“I ran out like a lunatic in the middle of chatting about one of the daughters.

“Coming across the C-Link I rang all my staff – fair play to them – and they all came in and we got the gate open and the machines out and all vehicles off site.

“Someone else had already rang the fire brigade and they came then.

“We went at the fire with a machine: luckily enough, we had the machines to do the job to help the fire brigade and we kept at it and between the fire brigade and staff and friends and family who came to help we got it out.

“Fair play to the fire brigade: they guided everything and we got it sorted – thanks be to God.

“We all pulled together and friends of mine appeared and my son – who was working up in Ashbourne – appeared and he got into the digger after me in the shed.”

Bad as things looked at the time, in fact the damage was not huge, and all the machinery was saved: “It’s a bit of cosmetic damage, that’s all: there’s a few skylights to be replaced; a bit of wiring and a few cameras, but the main thing is we’re trading and we’re still working. There’s nothing wrong.”

At the insistence of the fire crews and others present, Michael went to the hospital to ensure he had not suffered from smoke inhalation.

“So I went over at 11 o’clock and I was out at 5 o’clock and fair play to the hospital, they looked at me very well.

“I went home, got a shower and I was back in at work at half six and the bin lorry went out at seven.

“There is work to be done – but if you go by Facebook and you go by social media, you’d think there was only a pile of ashes there.

“I really want to thank the fire brigade, the guards, the neighbours that phoned me about it; the family and friends who came down and worked with us on the night; the hospital; and to get it out there that I’m open because some people think I’m closed, that I’m gone - but I’m not!

“I’ll be honest. When I came in and saw it, I was fairly scared. But your adrenaline kicks in and as I said to the fire brigade: ‘that’s my life’.

“Like it’s our livelihood and there’s seven or eight lads and girls dependent on this place for their livelihood. There are seven or eight employed here.

“We came in the next morning, switched on the electricity and away we went.”