Houses damaged in serious Athlone blaze

A man in his 20s has been arrested in connection with a serious fire in St Mary's Place in Athlone last night.

He is currently being detained at Athlone Garda Station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.

Gardaí said in a brief statement that they are investigating an incident of criminal damage by fire to a number of properties in Athlone last night (Thursday).

Two units of Athlone Fire Brigade attended the area on the two different occasions on Thursday night.

The first call came in just after 7.30pm, when a fire broke out on the first floor of a house where floorboards were smouldering.

After dealing with this incident, Athlone Fire Brigade were called back to scene around 9.15pm to deal with a more serious fire in the attic of the house next door to the initial call.

A spokesperson said this was a much bigger fire with flames to be seen from the roof from quite a distance away. He said the loud bangs that many would have heard on the night were roof tiles exploding.

It took much longer to extinguish the second blaze and the brigade units only left the scene sometime after 11.30pm.

No one was injured but the two houses were extensively damaged.

A spokesperson for Athlone Fire Brigade said luckily this fire didn't start in the early hours of the morning or it could have spread to neighbouring houses up or down the street very quickly before emergency services arrived on the scene.

This area of St Mary's Place has been the scene of several fires in recent times.

Gardaí also attended the scene, and an investigation is underway.