Central Hotel Fire, Bundoran

Infobox wildfire
title= Central Hotel Fire


caption=
location= Bundoran, Donegal, Ireland
cost=
date= 8th August 1980
source= electrical fault
area burnt=
landuse=
fatalities= 10
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The Central Hotel was a popular family owned hotel in the heart of the seaside resort of Bundoran, Co. Donegal in the northwest of Ireland. On 8th August 1980, a fire broke out killing ten people, including both locals and holiday makers. The tragedy featured as part of the RTÉ television series ‘Disasters’ in summer 2007.

The blaze

Just after midnight on Friday 8th August, a call was made to the emergency services after a fire had been discovered in a small corridor to the back of the main bar, and going towards the main stair case used by the hotel’s guests. The fire broke out at the height of the summer season, with sixty guests, mainly couples and families, booked in on the night; while a function was also taking place in the main dance hall of the hotel.

Initially, the town’s own fire brigade was dispatched, and was to be aided by other units from across the northwest including Ballyshannon, Donegal Town, Letterkenny and Manorhamilton. As panic spread throughout the town, many locals and holiday makers rushed to the hotel in an effort to try and rescue some of those who had been trapped inside, with people jumping from the upper floors of the building into blankets held by those below.

The fire spread rapidly and burned so intensely that cars that had been parked on the street outside it burst into flames. Ambulances were sent from Ballyshannon and Sligo to bring the many injured to hospital; while the fire brigade fought the blaze throughout the night. [ [http://www.bundoranfirebrigade.com/1980_hotel_fire.htm Bundoran Fire Brigade Site about fire, including photos of the aftermath] ]

Aftermath

The fire brigade and Garda forensic experts launched an investigation into the blaze, as the remains of the hotel smouldered for several days afterwards. The fire had killed five adults and five children, including the entire Brennan family from Naas, Co. Kildare, while the body of a Belfast baby, Nicola Lamont, was never found in the rubble.

Despite calls from the victims' families and Dáil debates for a public enquiry into the circumstances surrounding the fire, similar to that held after the Stardust Disaster several months later, none was ever held. [ [http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0331/D.0331.198111240064.html Oireachtas Records] ] Calls for an investigation were made again in 2002, when the Fine Gael Senator Jim Higgins called for the Garda handling of the fire to be investigated as part of the Morris Tribunal, an enquiry into police corruption in County Donegal. Higgins said that the fire warranted inclusion in the tribunal's work as claims had been made by the owner of the hotel that Gardaí had tampered with the evidence, however the terms of reference were not extended to include the fire. [ [http://www.finegael.ie/news/index.cfm/type/details/nkey/21308 Fine Gael Press Release, 11 Aug 2002: "FG seek extensions to terms of reference of tribunal into alleged garda misconduct in Donegal"; viewed 11 April 2008] ]

RTÉ programme

In 2007, RTÉ’s ‘Disaster’ series investigated the circumstances surrounding the fire. It put forward extracts from the original investigation which stated that it was an electrical fault that had caused the blaze, and stories surrounding the fire of the poor upkeep of the hotel, including allegations that coins had been used rather than fuses.

The programme focused mainly on the Kinsella family from Artane in Dublin who lost two of their children in the fire, and on the unfortunate nature of their deaths. It was the family’s first visit to the seaside town, and due to a mix up with bookings the family was split up with the two parents sleeping in separate rooms to their four young children. [ [http://www.rte.ie/tv/disasters/prog4.html RTÉ 'Disasters' site] ]

The programme was criticised by Cllr Sean McEniff, a member of the town council, who claimed that it would reopen old wounds for the families involved and that it was better left in the past. [ [http://www.oceanfm.ie/onair/donegalnews.php?articleid=000001699 Ocean FM News] ]

Remembrance

At the time of the tragedy, it was one of the worst fires in Irish history Fact|date=March 2008 up to that point, but the following St Valentine’s Day 14 February 1981, 48 people died in a fire at the Stardust club in Artane in Dublin. The Bundoran fire has never been commemorated physically, although in the aftermath of the airing of the RTÉ programme the town council voted in favour of a memorial plaque to the ten victims. However, there was a reluctance to place a plaque on the site of the fire from both councillors and members of the new hotel’s board. [ [http://www.bundoran.ie/Article_Details.aspx?article_id=68&tscategory_id=125 Bundoran Town Council Minutes] ]

The site of the Central Hotel lay vacant for several years, but is now occupied by the Grand Central Hotel and Apartments.

Victims

The ten people who died were:
* James, Anne, Deirdre and John Brennan from Naas, Co. Kildare
* Sadie Dowdican from Tullaghan, Co. Leitrim
* Mary Gallagher from Carrick, Co. Donegal
* Adrienne and James Kinsella from Artane, Co. Dublin
* Nicola Lamont from Belfast, Co. Antrim
* George Lazenby from Malahide, Co. Dublin

ee also

*Stardust Disaster

References