Croke Park day of joy turns to shock for farmer

Firefighters from Navan and Nobber spent several hours battling a blaze at a straw shed at a Johnstown farmyard on Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday morning. The alarm was raised at around 8.30pm on Sunday night that the straw shed was ablaze and two units from Navan Fire Service rushed to the scene. They were joined also by an appliance from Nobber Fire Service. Fire crews brought the blaze under control but it took several hours for the fire to be dampened down and fire personnel remained on the scene until 4am. A shed full of round bales of straw in a pit area was destroyed in the blaze. Farmer Edmund Curtis rents the farm and yard at St Martha's, Johnstown, Navan, and was devastated to get a call that his shed of straw was on fire. He said: "After being in Croke Park on such a great day and then to come home to a phone call like that was devastating, and to see the amount of fire brigades and all the people around. It was very difficult. I would like to thank the neighbours. I am very grateful to them for their help that night at short notice," said Mr Curtis. The cause of the blaze has not yet been established and Mr Curtis said that Gardai are conducting enquiries. Navan Fire Service also was called to extinguish fires at Rathmore Bog on Thursday and Friday of last week. A large area of vegetation was ablaze in the hot, dry weather on Thursday and fire crews returned on Friday after the fire reignited.