Blaze-Hit Orange Hall 'To Be Razed'

A fire has all-but destroyed an Orange hall in Co Tyrone with the PSNI investigating the cause.

This is the second such serious fire inside two years at the two-storey building in Pomeroy.

However, as the fire had taken hold by the time emergency services arrived at the scene, eyewitnesses this morning said they thought the 100-year-old building was now beyond repair and will most likely have top be demolished.

Fire crews were called to Bonn Orange Hall on the Pomeroy Road, Dungannon, at about 3am on Thursday.

Police are "working to establish the circumstances surrounding the fire" as the same hall was extensively damaged in an arson attack in 2008.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster this morning, Richard Reid, a trustee of the hall, said it was well over 100 years old but insisted that the severely damaged hall would be rebuilt when compensation came through.

He said it had been in use by a variety of organisations as a community facility and went on to query the current political situation in NI: "We're supposed to be in a new era, yet there are a lot of people in this area apparently can't give us space to live.

"We hear a lot of talk about a new Ireland and a new future, but unfortunately the outlook for us seems to be that we're not part of that, we're not wanted in that area."

Four fire crews were in attendance at the blaze with 16 men in two pumping appliances and two specialist appliances including one aerial appliance to tackle the blaze.

(BMcC/GK)