A fire which caused the deaths of 1,500 pigs and destroyed much of a pig farm was probably caused by welding work carried out by an agricultural services company, a High Court judge has found. The farmer was awarded £405,000 against the company.
Mr Michael Monagle (40) secured the judgment against Irish Dairy Services (Portlaoise) Ltd, of Boughlone, Portlaoise, arising out of the fire at his pig farm at Annakisha, Doneraile, on June 3rd, 1996. At the same time the company is to receive £200,000 from Mr Monagle for work it carried out at the farm, including rebuilding works. An action by Mr Monagle against another company, Precision Environment Ltd, which supplied heaters to the farm, was dismissed. Mr Monagle had claimed Irish Dairy Services agreed to install machinery and equipment on his premises. He claimed workmen involved in welding operations on a farrowing and weaning shed caused a fire to start on June 3rd, 1996. Mr Justice Kearns said the issue before him was whether the probable cause of the fire was welding work carried out by two employees of Irish Dairy Services or an allegedly faulty heater supplied by the other company. He said there was no evidence to sustain a claim the fire was due to an electrical fault and it was "pure speculation" to blame the heaters. He stressed there were "no certainties" in such a case and he could only decide it on the balance of probabilities. While the two Irish Dairy Services employees, one of whom had since died, were adamant they had not caused the fire, the judge said aspects of the evidence given in relation to the welding operation were unsatisfactory and inconsistent. He said the two workers' conviction that the welding operation was not to blame was based on the fact neither had seen the ignition source of the fire. Based on the evidence he had heard, the judge said he had concluded the probable cause of the fire was the welding operation. He noted the pig unit floor where he believed the fire started had contained very flammable material.