Gardaí following several lines of inquiry on Cork city centre shop fires
O'hare Street, Cork Academy Boots Picture: Sunday In Eddie On On At Fire Store Following A Gardaí
Gardaí say they are following several lines of inquiry in the hunt for the arsonist behind the spate of attacks on shops in Cork city centre.
One business suffered losses of up to €100,000 in smoke-damaged stock during the string of incidents on Sunday.
Detectives are still examining footage from CCTV systems in the targeted shops, and from the city’s network of CCTV cameras, to identify a suspect, who it is believed acted alone and who may have changed their clothing afterwards.
They have used CCTV footage to track the suspect's movements through the city, and are awaiting the results of various forensic tests. But they have yet to establish a motive for the attacks.
Supt John Deasy of Anglesea Street Garda Station said gardaí have received certain information from the public which has been of assistance to the investigation.
But he appealed to anyone who saw anyone acting suspiciously in the St Patrick’s Street, Opera Lane, Paul Street area of the city centre between 5pm and 6pm on Sunday, and especially to anyone who saw someone discarding items in this area at that time to contact gardaí at Anglesea Street.
The incidents began to unfold at about 5.15pm on Sunday, when the alarm was raised about a small fire in the Life Style Sports outlet on St Patrick’s Street. It appeared as if clothing and other items on display had been set alight.
Members of Cork City Fire Brigade and gardaí responded and found the fire had already been dealt with by staff.
However, as they were dealing with that incident, they began to get other alerts from shops nearby, all in quick succession, all reporting small fires on their premises.
Several other units of the fire service from Anglesea Street and Ballyvolane were deployed to Superdry, also on St Patrick’s Street, to the Next outlet on Opera Lane, to Boots pharmacy on Half Moon Street and to the TK Maxx shop on Cornmarket Street.
In some cases, customers spotted the fires before they took hold.
One man told Neil Prendeville on Cork’s RedFM how he spotted what he thought was steam rising from a clothes rail before he realised it was smoke.
He said he grabbed the item of smouldering clothing, threw it on the floor before the flames spread to other clothes, and managed to stamp it out as his son raised the alarm with staff.
He said there was no smell of accelerant — that it appeared as it the tags on the clothing had just been set alight.
Second officer with Cork City Fire Brigade Victor Shine praised the staff in the shops for how they dealt with the emergencies, and for engaging the correct evacuation procedures.
He said while there was little to no structural damage to the five outlets, there was substantial smoke damage to clothing stock, which in one case was estimated to be close to €100,000.
“Multiple events like this are extremely rare,” he said.
“I must congratulate the staff for how they dealt with the situation, extinguishing the fires, keeping the situation under control and using evacuation protocol and protecting the members of the public in their store. Luckily, there was nobody injured in this.
“It [the situation] had the potential to be an awful lot worse."