Emotional appeal for help after devastating Moate fire
A local farmer has been left “inconsolable” after a fire destroyed a shed and up to €60,000 worth of machinery and equipment at the weekend.
The alarm was raised on Sunday evening between 6pm and 6.30pm when a passerby noticed a fire in a hay shed on the farm of Terry and Colette Middleton at Ballinalig, Moate, a short distance from Moyvoughley.
“Only for our neighbours the whole place (the house and other sheds) would have went up. None of us were home at the time,” his devastated daughter Amelda Middleton told the Westmeath Independent on Tuesday morning. “Every tool Dad had, apart from the tractor, is gone. All his machinery is gone. He’s lost everything”.
A garda spokesperson confirmed that they are treating the cause of the fire as suspicious and arson is suspected. The scene has been forensically examined and a number of lines of inquiry are currently being explored as part of that investigation in a bid to establish a motive.
An emotional Amelda said the family is devastated by what has happened and finds it to hard to believe that someone would set out deliberately to destroy their home.
“My dad is inconsolable, he’s lost 30 years of building up his farm. Anyone who saw anything between 5pm and 6.30pm on Sunday or anything the week of it, I’d appeal to them to come forward and please contact Athlone, Ballymore or Moate Gardai”.
“It shocking to think someone would come in and set fire to your home,” Amelda said starkly, although she stressed that they are extremely lucky that the blaze did not spread into a nearby shed with animals or to the house.
But for their quick-thinking neighbours it would have and she said the family cannot thank them enough for all they did, along with the Fire Services and Gardai.
The fire broke out in a 40-foot shed built just two years ago and housing 50 to 60 hay and straw bales, a large amount of machinery and tools and quickly spread into a nearby storage container containing a quad, generator, engines and into a neighbouring field.
All that is left now is rubble on the ground, the shed and everything in it was completely destroyed, Amelda detailed, saying that they are trying today (Tuesday) to clean up the area and gauge just what they have lost, some of which dates back to her father’s father’s time and were both sentimental and valuable. Unfortunately, the contents of the shed were not insured.
She said straw was pulled from the shed and put on silage bales and set alight, bales were lit beside a tractor and a tyre cut on a cattle trailer, while she claimed something was put into the diesel of the tractor and a bale set alight close by in a bid to destroy as much as possible in the yard.
“None of us have a grievance with anyone,” a mystified Amelda added, saying that she and her family are at a loss as to who would set out deliberately do this to them.
Only for neighbours coming quickly to the scene with buckets of water a lot more would have been lost, added the Moate woman. Among the items destroyed included a quad, strimmer, rotary mower, all kinds of farm machinery and tools, a chainsaw, generators, engines etc.
“It’s roughly €50,000 to €60,000 (the value of the equipment lost) if not more. He is totally at the loss of it, there was no insurance.”
Gardai also appealed for information in relation to the suspicious fire which is being investigated as a suspected case of arson. Ballymore Gardai are leading the investigation, in conjunction with Moate and Athlone officers.