TWO WORKMEN were injured yesterday, one critically, after a small gas cylinder exploded while the men were carrying out repairs on a roof at Dromoland Castle hotel in Co Clare.
The incident occurred shortly before midday when the men were sealing a window on the first floor of the castle. Both were standing on an adjacent roof carrying out the work when they were engulfed in flames.
The hotel's fire alarm activated automatically and the building was quickly evacuated. No staff members or guests were injured.
A bride and her wedding guests were also evacuated as the emergency services dealt with the fire and the casualties.
A 60-year-old man is understood to have sustained burns to almost 40 per cent of his body and was flown to hospital in Galway by the Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter.
The second man, who received serious burns to both arms, was taken to Ennis General Hospital for treatment.
Five units of the fire brigade from Ennis and Shannon town, as well as four ambulances from Ennis and Limerick attended the incident. A team of paramedics was also sent to the scene. They treated the most seriously injured man on the roof and prepared him so that he could be lifted from the roof by the fire brigade.
The casualty was then airlifted to University College Hospital, Galway where his condition was said to be "critical" last night.
A Garda spokesman confirmed: "There was an explosion in an area of the castle where these two men were working. We don't know what caused the explosion and fire, but the area has been sealed off pending an examination by our own technical people and a representative from the Health and Safety Authority.
"After sealing off the affected area, we held a meeting with the fire chief and we agreed that in the absence of any further risk of fire or explosion, the hotel could continue to operate and we allowed the staff and guests to return to the hotel, except to the area where this incident happened."
A fire brigade spokesman said: "We had five units of the fire service here from Ennis and Shannon. We used our aerial platform to safely lift the casualty from the roof after he had been treated and placed on a stretcher by HSE personnel.
"Fortunately, the fire was confined to a small area of the roof where the men were working and the main building was not badly affected. As a precaution, the hotel was evacuated for a time."
The gates to the castle were closed to the public to ensure that no unnecessary traffic blocked up the narrow kilometre-long access road.
Meanwhile, the ambulance which was transporting the second casualty to hospital in Ennis was held up by road works for several minutes a short distance from the hospital.
Both sides of the Tulla Road were blocked by resurfacing works with traffic backed up for some distance. With nowhere for the ambulance to go, workmen soon removed their vehicles from the road and allowed the ambulance to continue its journey.