More than 100 employees of a Cork textile plant which was ravaged by fire on Thursday were told yesterday they had no future with the company, writes Louise Geaney.
A majority of the 130 workers of the Refond Plant met management and representatives of SIPTU yesterday morning at a hotel to determine if their jobs could be salvaged.
However, they were told the plant would not be reopening or relocating in any capacity.
The Refond plant was one of many industrial units totally destroyed by fire on Thursday afternoon, when a blaze broke out at a dye-room at the Sunbeam Industrial Park in Blackpool.
Such was the extent of the fire that for the first time in history three units of Cork County Fire Brigade were called to the scene to assist nine units of the city services.
The site of the former Sunbeam plant, which employed more than 1,000 workers at the height of its success in the 1960s, was a smouldering ruin yesterday, with embers continuing to smoke some 24 hours after the fire began.
The historic four-storey building was knocked to the ground after it was declared structurally unsound, with demolition crews on site for most of the afternoon.
Union representatives had earlier met management to discuss the future for the workforce, but were told there was "no way back".
"There's no possibility of rebuilding it. I really think there's no chance of there being a textile plant at the Sunbeam in the future," its owner, Mr Martin Buckley, said.
"Unfortunately we've concluded that the devastation of the plant means it's not possible to reopen," he said.
"It's a very sad day for the workers. Some of them have been on site for 40 years, and we appreciate that they were an excellent workforce. The textile industry is always difficult, but they were what allowed us to survive in those hard times," Mr Buckley added.
A further meeting between management, staff and their union will take place on Monday morning, at which the issue of redundancy entitlements will be raised. Other businesses destroyed in the fire included the Cork Academy of Music and a Fás training centre.