By Dionne Meehan
THE tight-knit community of Newtowncunningham are uniting together to set up a fundraising campaign in light of the recent devastating lightning strike.
This comes after three houses, situated half a metre apart, were damaged when a bolt of lightning struck on Monday as a result of Storm Isha.
Urging everyone to help those that have been “seriously impacted”, Cllr Paul Canning said they need as many volunteers and ideas as possible to help the three families.
Organising a meeting in Trinity Hall on January 26, at 7.30pm, Cllr Canning is hoping to set up a fundraising campaign to help those affected.
From internal damage to extensive fire damage, Cllr Canning said these families have been left “devastated”.
As lightning struck, plugs and sockets blew out while a TV was blown off a wall in one elderly woman’s home.
And as for the other families involved, Cllr Canning said fires broke out immediately after they were struck. One of which is owned by a family with three children whose home is now uninhabitable.
“They thought a bomb hit the house,” Cllr Canning said.
A spokesperson from the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service said they received the call at 3.10pm on Monday, January 22.
Two appliances and one aerial appliance from Northland Fire Station, one appliance from Crescent Link Fire Station, one appliance from Strabane Fire Station and one water tanker from Dungiven Fire Station attended the incident.
Called to reports of a fire in the attic of a two storey detached house in Rooskey, Newtowncunningham, a spokesperson said firefighters entered the property wearing breathing apparatus and extinguished the fire.
“The scene was handed over to Donegal Fire Service.
“The cause of the fire is accidental ignition and the incident was dealt with by 4.55pm,” the spokesperson concluded.
Despite the tragic events, the community rallied around those affected.
Now trying to get their thoughts together and plan their next steps, Cllr Canning said it is just a “shock to the system” for everyone involved.
Meanwhile, a local councillor has again called for a dedicated service to be employed to check fire hydrants after the Monday’s devastating events.
This comes after it was reported that firefighters attending the scene struggled to find a fire hydrant close to the family home.
Similarly, when a fire broke out at a house in Meadowbank recently, the fire service were faced with delays when they encountered a blocked hydrant.
Speaking to the Donegal News this week, Cllr Jimmy Kavanagh said delays in a fire situation could be the difference between life or death.
“The fire service is responsible for finding hydrants that aren’t working or that are blocked and it’s their responsibility to log that with Uisce Éireann.
“In reality, that is just not tactical.
“There is no way the fire service would have the resources to go around checking every hydrant in the county,” he said.
First raising this issue in 2021, Cllr Kavanagh said he recently mentioned it at the last Donegal County Council Municipal District meeting.
“I asked at that time that we write to the Minister to take this issue on board. They need to be hiring people to do this work of checking fire hydrants. They can’t leave the responsibility to the fire service and expect them to report it to Uisce Éireann.
“The system just isn’t working,” he concluded.
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