Clare church spire collapses in flames after lightning strike
The timber spire of a church in Co Clare crashed to the ground in flames after it was struck by lightning in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The alarm was raised at around 3.45am when emergency services were alerted to a fire at the church in Ruan.
Locals reported that the church’s spire was on fire and the village was without electricity.
A ‘huge flash of lightning’ was seen followed by a ‘massive bang’ heard across a wide area of Clare at the time.
Moments later, the first calls reporting several incidents in the Ruan area were received by emergency services.
A local fire fighter said: “We weren’t long back from a call and I was lying in bed when I saw a flash and heard a massive bang. Five minutes later, the pagers went off,” Units of Clare County Fire and Rescue Service from Ennis station were mobilised for the incident.
As they approached the village, they could see a fire in distance. On arrival at the scene they found the timber spire atop the church’s bell tower engulfed in flames.
The church in Ruan Co Clare after the timber spire crashed to the ground after been struck by lightning. Picture: Press 22While firefighters prepared to tackle the blaze the timber spire collapsed onto the ground.
Once it was safe to do so, fire crews deployed a hydraulic platform and commenced battling the blaze which they soon brought under control, preventing the fire from spreading to the rest of the building.
Fire crews also carried out an inspection of the building’s interior but found no further issues.
While the main building suffered some water damage, it was otherwise relatively unscathed.
The church’s electrical system was, however, damaged with power sockets blown off the wall or burned out.
While fire crews were dealing with that incident, they received a report of a house on fire nearby, also believed to have been caused by lightning. The house was extensively damaged by fire but nobody was injured.
There were also reports that electricity poles and transformers were struck by lightning in the area.
Fire crews were redeployed to the house fire at nearby Toormore while further resources from Shannon and Scarriff stations were also called in.
An additional water tanker was sent from Galway Fire and Rescue Service’s Gort station.
Fire crews left the fire at Ruan Church shortly before 8am after the scene had been declared safe.
Locals, who had been observing the firefighting efforts during the morning, later jumped into action and set up fencing around the church to make the area safe.
It’s expected that the church tower will be inspected by structural engineers and further efforts to make the building safe may also be required.
