City Hall damage worse than first thought

Date Published: 15-Jun-2010

DAMAGE caused by the explosion at Galway City Hall on Friday has transpired to be more extensive than initially believed following an examination of the site by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).

The inspection concluded yesterday (Monday) and revealed that the explosion was so powerful that the blast travelled up stairwells and caused damage to the upper floor of the building, causing damage that is estimated to cost tens of thousands of euro to repair.

Doors throughout the structure were also broken by the force of the blowout, which is suspected to have originated from a water boiler adjacent to the finance department at City Hall.

Council officials are hailing as a miracle the fact that there were no fatalities arising from the incident, which occurred at 7.50am last Friday.

“We are counting our lucky stars that the explosion happened when it did because staff start to arrive in the building from about eight o’clock in the morning, so we are very, very thankful that nobody at all was hurt,” said a city council spokesman.

“At least ten windows were blown out by the blast and damage is extensive to offices throughout the whole building. The frames of doors were damaged and the blast went up stairwells and displaced ceiling panels on the second floor,” he said.

Approximately 200 staff are ordinarily located at City Hall. Many of these have since been accommodated in the local authority’s Transport and Infrastructure offices beside the Grammar School and its premises at Sandy Road.

Most functions of the city council have been unaffected by the closure of the building and email and website services were resumed late yesterday evening.

However, only limited counter services are being provided at the Transport and Infrastructure offices and people are urged to avail of these only if absolutely necessary.

For more on this story see page 1 of this week’s Sentinel

See also

• City Hall will not re-open until it’s safe – Page 4