Gardaí in Co Kildare are not "ruling in or ruling out" arson as the cause of a fire at a former rug factory in Athy, writes Sorcha Crowley.
Members of the Garda Forensic Bureau conducted a technical examination of the smouldering remains of a section of the Peerless Rugs premises yesterday to establish the cause of the fire.
The blaze is thought to have begun shortly after midnight on Thursday. Security personnel raised the alarm and five fire brigade units from Athy, Newbridge and Abbeyleix fought the fire and brought it under control after a couple of hours. Gardaí confirmed that one section of the building had been completely destroyed.
No estimate of the financial cost of the fire damage was available.
The Peerless Rugs plant closed in July 2001 with the loss of 65 jobs when production was transferred to the Refond plant in Cork.
Staff at Peerless Rugs were given three weeks' pay per year of service in July 2001 and staged one of the State's longest-running sit-ins because of the company's refusal to pay amounts recommended by the Labour Court.