Teen, 19, evacuates children following house fire before returning to tackle blaze
A young man managed to evacuate three young children from a house in Co Clare tonight after a fire broke out in the kitchen.
The 19-year-old then returned to the house and used a fire extinguisher to tackle the fire before he was overcome by smoke and had to leave himself and call for help.
It is understood the teenager had been taking a shower upstairs when the blaze broke out in the kitchen of the house on the Gort Road in Ennis.
After being alerted to the fire, he ran downstairs and quickly got three children out of the building to safety.
He then re-entered the house and grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to deal with the fire himself. However he was beaten back by flames and smoke and had to call emergency services.
Two units of Clare County Fire and Rescue Service from Ennis station and an ambulance from the nearby Ennis General Hospital responded to the scene along gardaí.
On arrival at the scene, emergency services found the kitchen area ‘well alight’ and smoke billowing from a number of windows.
Fire service personnel wearing breathing apparatus carried out a search of the property to ensure there was no one else inside, while other firefighters set about tackling the blaze.
Fire crews quickly established that the only persons in the house at the time had gotten out safely.
The fire was quickly brought under control however the kitchen was extensively damaged while the entire house suffered smoke damage.
Fire crews ventilated the building to clear the smoke before leaving the scene.
The 19-year-old was assessed at the scene by National Ambulance Service paramedics but didn’t require hospitalisation. The three children were unharmed.
The fire is understood to have started accidentally in the kitchen.
