News
Further investigations in to cause of hotel fire

By Michelle Crean
The owner of a town centre hotel which went on fire in the early hours of Monday morning - resulting in the evacuation of over 200 guests - says he's heartbroken.
Pat Eviston had reopened the doors of Eviston House on New Strret to guests just five days earlier after five months of COVID closures.
25 fire fighters, two fire appliances from Killarney, one from Killorglin, Tralee, and Castleisland, rushed to the hotel at 6.15am on Bank Holiday Monday as a fire tore through the building.
It had started in a room just off the kitchen on the first floor and spread along the venting and ducting on the first, second and third floors. There was heavy smoke throughout the hotel and all guests were evacuated safely. The fire was brought under control at approximately 9.30am but fire fighters remained on scene until 3.30pm.
"We're just grateful everybody was ok," owner Pat Eviston told the Killarney Advertiser.
"It's heartbreaking. It's very upsetting for everybody; all the people who work there. We're trying to keep as many as we can employed."
He added that further investigations have to take place to establish the cause of the fire and they have no idea yet when they'll reopen.
"It's still too early to know. Everything is still up in the air. More inspections have to be done. We're just grateful everybody was OK, that's all we can take from it. We were helped by other hotels and we're extremely grateful to them and the fire fighters, and for all the messages of support and offers of help from lots of different people."
Photo: Grigoriy Geniyevskiy