Ashbourne restaurant gutted by blaze

A popular restaurant at Coolfore, Ashbourne, was destroyed by a fire which swept through the building in the early hours of Thursday morning last. Two fire units from Ashbourne and two from Dunshaughlin raced to the scene of the blaze at Guilios Road House, which broke out shortly before 4am. The teams of firefighters had the blaze under control within an hour, but spent several hours on the scene ensuring the flames didn't spread to gas and petrol tanks at a filling station next door. The blaze was spotted by a passing truck driver who raised the alarm in the early hours. It is believed the outbreak may have started in the kitchen area. Ashbourne Gardai are investigating the incident. Meanwhile, the emergency services were called to Enfield village on Friday morning after a fire erupted while works on the new sewerage scheme were being carried out by a contractor on Main Street. Nobody was injured in the blaze, which is believed to have begun when sparks from cutting equipment that was being used ignited fumes in the shaft. An investigation is being carried out into the cause of the blaze. It is not yet known if the incident will further delay the completion of Enfield's sewerage scheme which has been dogged by delays after petrol contamination was discovered in the area some years ago. Because of the contamination, tunnelling works were required to lay the sewers along the main street in the village and work finally began some weeks ago on the final section. It is understood that the contractors had just three days of work left to complete the project when the incident occurred. The blaze began at about 10am on Friday morning and Trim Fire Service rushed to the scene. The street was closed for several hours and re-opened late on Friday afternoon. Local county councillor William Carey said the fire was all over in a couple of minutes and that gas fumes in the ground had caught fire. He said it could have been a lot worse but he understood nobody was injured. "It burned until the fumes exhausted themselves. There was a strong smell of petrol in the area for a couple of hours and the council closed the shops in close proximity because nobody knew how bad it would be and traffic was stopped on the street. The shaft was filled that day and topped with concrete for the weekend so that it was left safe and the area was monitored over the weekend," said Cllr Carey. He added that engineers were meeting yesterday (Tuesday) to see when works can resume. "I hope it doesn't hold the works up long. It shouldn't have happened. The scheme has already been held up a number of years. I am very annoyed over it. Having waited so long and things were going so well, for this to happen so near the finish. There were only three days left," said Cllr Carey. Meath County Council spokesperson Bill Sweeney said: "Shortly after 10am on Friday morning, an incident occurred on the main street in Enfield where works are currently being undertaken by a contractor on a new sewer network. The incident involved an outbreak of fire as tunnelling works were being carried. The emergency services, including the Meath County Council Fire Service, responded to the incident and the situation was brought under control with no injuries reported. "As a precautionary measure, the main street remained closed for some hours and reopened late on Friday afternoon. The area will continue to be monitored until work has been completed."