The explosion which rocked Cronin's family restaurant in College St, Killarney on Saturday evening, is almost certain to have come from a domestic propane gas supply, gardai and fire officers now say.
The gas is piped from cylinders in a small, open backyard into the restaurant kitchen.
The Health and Safety Authority are to investigate the explosion, which saw 12 people taken to Tralee General Hospital and four detained overnight.
The explosion, shortly after 8 p.m., happened just a few hundred yards away from where Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and his partner, Ms Celia Larkin were staying for the weekend at the Killarney Great Southern Hotel.
Most of the injured had been dining in the restaurant, which seats up to 60 over two floors, and were in the process of evacuating the building. They included staff members, as well as tourists from Wicklow and England. The injuries were not serious and were caused by flying gas. They included cuts, abrasions, as well as a broken leg suffered by one person. The owner of the restaurant, Mr Pat Cronin, remained in Tralee General Hospital yesterday suffering from burns.
Garda Supt Eddie Quirke paid tribute to Mr Cronin's quick thinking in getting an evacuation underway after gas had been smelt in the building.
Eyewitnesses saw one man with his leg in plaster being blown out onto the street, such was the force of the explosion.
Killarney fire officer Mr Donal O'Grady said it was a miracle a number of people were not killed in the incident. He was in the local fire station with colleagues when they heard the blast, thinking at first it was thunder. "The station shook and then we got the call. Two units of the fire brigade were on the scene within minutes. The emergency plan was put into operation and six ambulance units responded as well as a number of local doctors," he said. Plates and cutlery remained undamaged on the tables in the aftermath of the explosion, while the downstairs glass and wood front of the building was blown onto the street.
Locks were blown off the back doors of the adjoining Corcoran's Tours shop and glass was shattered. A ceiling of an upstairs room in the nearby Failte Hotel partly collapsed. The sides of two parked cars were driven in with the force of the explosion and by flying wood. Four ambulances and two units of the Killarney fire brigade were called to the scene. Nearby houses, hotels and pubs were evacuated for up to an hour and most of College St was cordoned off for a number of hours.
Early yesterday, the scene had already become a tourist spectacle, with large groups of people stopping outside the damaged restaurant.
Town engineers were already at the scene assessing structural damage on Saturday night and are to carry out investigations this week.