‘It was so frightening’: Four houses and two vehicles damaged in Meath fire

Four houses and two vehicles have been damaged in a fire in Ratoath, Co Meath on Saturday morning.

The alarm was raised shortly after 4am when a van was discovered on fire in the driveway of a house at Meadowbank Hill.

It is understood the fire quickly spread to neighbouring houses and a car parked nearby.

The houses were evacuated and no one was injured.

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The fire was extinguished by local fire services and gardaí also attended the scene.

Two houses, a van and a car have been extensively damaged while smoke damage has been caused to two adjoining houses.

Local gardaí say it is not yet clear how the fire started and they await the results of a technical examination.

It is understood gardaí are not treating the fire as suspicious at this time.

A woman who lives three doors down from where the fire started said she was woken by her neighbour just after 4am.

“My neighbour came in and knocked for us to get up. I thought it was kids messing initially ringing the bell and then I saw my neighbour outside in her dressing gown and I knew something was up,” the woman told The Irish Times.

“We came out and the place was just ablaze. It was so frightening. The wind was pushing all the flames ...we were all scared as the fire was spreading to my other neighbour’s house and we couldn’t get him out of bed.

“There was huge sparks, thankfully no one was hurt.”

Local Fianna Fáil councillor Damien O’Reilly said firefighters worked “diligently throughout this morning”.

“I would like to thank them for all their hard work and would call on anyone with information in relation to the fire to contact local gardaí,” he said.