Arresting experience as Gardaí forced to evacuate station

A water pipe which burst during renovation work to the cells in Mill Street Garda Station caused the busy city centre garda headquarters to be evacuated for up to 24 hours.

The ground floor of the barracks was flooded on Wednesday at 4pm when construction workers hit a mains.

Due to health and safety reasons the station had to be closed to the public and around 12 gardaí who worked in the public office and the administration area were told to leave so that damage to the electrics could be assessed.

Gardaí working on the first floor in the communication rooms and other areas of the barracks continued to operate.

All phone calls to the public office were diverted to Ennis and Salthill Garda Stations while members of the public were told to go to Salthill or Oranmore if they needed any services.

Builders were two weeks into a three-week renovation of the cells and processing area when the flooding occurred.

All prisoners had been brought to Salthill and Oranmore for a number of weeks to facilitate the work, which involves a total upgrade of the cells in order to modernise the facilities.

For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune.