"Extremely lucky" early morning fire was spotted quickly

A local fire chief has said it was “extremely lucky” a blaze at a Church Street, Athlone, restaurant in the early hours of the morning was spotted so quickly.

Athlone Fire Brigade was alerted on Thursday, October 12, last around 1.30am after the two remaining employees noticed smoke as they prepared to leave the first-floor premises.

The blaze, which is understood to have started in a food storage and food preparation area, had spread to the kitchen area of Jalan Jalan by the time a unit of Athlone Fire Brigade arrived on the scene.

Due to the smoke leakage a number of residents were evacuated from residential accommodation on the second floor of the building.

A unit of Ferbane Fire Brigade was called in to assist local officers in quelling the flames, while the ESB cut the power to the prominent Church Street premises. Gardaí also attended the early morning scene.

According to Pat Hunt, Senior Assistant Chief Fire Officer, the fire resulted in smoke and water damage to the kitchen area of the Asian eaterie, with the residential accommodation above it also suffering some damage. The pub business on the ground floor was left with a small amount of smoke damage.

Mr Hunt said it was “extremely lucky” that the fire was spotted so quickly as the situation could have been so much worse and the whole building could easily have been lost. Fire officers only left the scene just after 8am.

A post on the Jalan Jalan Facebook page on Sunday evening said they are “temporarily closed due to kitchen renovation until further notice”. Meanwhile, Peddler Mac's pub said on social media on Saturday that due “circumstances beyond our control, unfortunately, we are not able to reopen today”. It added that it would keep customers updated and look forward to welcoming them back as soon as possible.