Firefighters spent several hours this morning bringing a blaze under control at a former hotel building in north Cork.
The fire broke out at the former Central Hotel on Main Street in Mallow early this morning. The alarm was raised at 4am.
Firefighters from Mallow were joined by crews from Kanturk, Charleville, Midleton and Cork city in battling the blaze.
Extensive damage was caused to the building which had been unoccupied for some time.
The area has since been cordoned off by gardaí for a forensic examination of the scene.
Gardaí hope the forensic examination will establish the cause of the blaze, which caused hundreds of thousands of euros worth of damage.