LATEST: Massive response to fundraiser for local family whose home was gutted by fire
A GoFundMe page set up to aid a Mount Temple family whose family home was gutted by fire on Thursday, has hit over €55,000 (as of 5.30pm Friday) only 18 hours after it went live.
It comes after a firefighter suffered extensive injuries following the blaze at Carn Park, which completely destroyed the family home of Nigel and Lisa Grennan.
Thankfully no one was in the house at the time of the fire.
However, a firefighter suffered extensive injuries following the blaze. While stable, the Athlone man is in hospital with extensive injuries to the back, shoulder, ankle, leg and ribs, and is expected to require surgery.
An earlier statement this morning from the fire services this morning had said: “He was treated for suspected ankle fracture on scene and transferred by ambulance to Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore where he underwent treatment for his injuries”.
The alarm was first raised at lunch time yesterday (Thursday).
“On arrival, the house was fully involved in the fire which had breached the roof.
“During the course of firefighting operations, a wall collapsed and a firefighter was struck by falling debris,” the statement from the fire services said this morning, adding that Westmeath County Council is currently investigating the incident.
Sadly, the home of Nigel and Lisa Grennan was completely burned to the ground in the incident.
Since then the local community has sprung into action, setting up a GoFundMe page which has already raised over €55,000 for the couple and their two children who have lost their home and all of their personal effects.
“We as a community, are devastated for the incredible loss of their family home, which was built and completed only two years ago. Fortunately, Lisa, Nigel and their two young children were not in the house at the time, but they now face the difficult task of rebuilding their lives and their home following the loss of everything they own,” the GoFundMe page set up for Nigel, who is a former Offaly footballer, and his wife Lisa, a well known local singer, who only recently launched a video with Simon Casey explained.