Firemen evacuate Kells family after fears chimney fire might spread

A young family in Kells had a lucky escape this week when firemen had to remove a window of their house to get them out over fears a chimney fire could spread. A patrol unit from the local garda station, while making its rounds, noticed a large pall of smoke coming from the chimney of a terraced house on Kenlis Place in the town at around 6am yesterday morning (Tuesday 16th August) and alerted Kells Fire Service. A fire unit was quickly on the scene but received no response when they banged on the door. Deciding the occupants must have been asleep, firemen decided it would be quicker to remove an upstairs window and rescue what turned out to be an adult male and female and a young son from the building. Margaret Flynn, proprietor of Margaret's Coffee Shop in Kenlis Place, said she witnessed heavy smoke coming from the chimney in the early hours of the morning and heard the fire brigade were on their way. "The couple who lived there had to leave and the fire brigade were there for some time," she said. The family was unscathed thanks to the quick thinking of the firemen, who removed the window without damaging it and no injuries were sustained. Initially, it was feared that because of the nature of the older terraced housing around the fire, it might easily spread to adjoining houses. Firemen said that it was a matter of teasing out the situation, making sure "the fire did not develop into a more serious situation", and the scene was made safe at around 9am yesterday morning. Gardaí are not treating the cause of the fire as suspicious.