Blaze Dramas Unfold

An investigation is being carried out to establish the cause of the three fires, including one where pensioners had to be evacuated from their homes - as well as a petrol bomb attack.

A row of terraced houses under construction at Milltown Street in Dungannon sustained extensive damage in the fire which was reported at 7.10am on Saturday.

While fire crews and police officers had attended the area at around 5am and extinguished a small fire at one of the timber houses currently being built, another blaze broke out hours later and several NI Housing Executive homes on the opposite side of the street were affected.

A number of retired people were evacuated as a precautionary measure and the windowpanes of at least four of these houses were cracked as a result of the fire.

While no one was injured in the weekend incident, four of the houses under construction were destroyed, another was extensively damaged and a sixth house was saved.

Paul McCloskey, who is station commander for the Cookstown district, described the weekend blaze as a major incident.

He said: "We received a call at 7.10am to the houses. They were well alight when we got there.

"Four of the houses were completely destroyed, another was extensively damaged and there was one we were able to save from serious damage."

Mr McCloskey said the windows of several houses opposite the scene of the blaze were also damaged.

He said: "As a precaution these houses had to be evacuated and there were a number of pensioners living there."

Meanwhile, there was high drama at the weekend as a 52-year-old man was rescued from a County Londonderry blaze.

The alarm was raised at about 6am on Saturday after the blaze was discovered at Benevenagh Drive, Limavady, when a flat caught fire.

The occupant had to be carried from his bed to safety by two police officers who forced their way inside, and fought their way through thick smoke to find the man in bed.

The man was treated in hospital for the effects of breathing in smoke. Police said a crime was not suspected.

Also over the weekend, a man and woman escaped injury following a petrol bomb attack in Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone.

It happened at about 3am on Sunday on Creevehill Road, with scorch damage caused to the outside of the house.

Police said they wanted to speak to a young motorist who alerted the couple that their house had been attacked.

A motive has not yet been established, but it is understood that detectives do not believe it was a sectarian attack. Police have appealed for information.

(BMcC)