A fire at a Skerries hardware shop forces residents to leave their homes.
The blaze in Skerries in north county Dublin caused extensive damage as gas cylinders exploded and making it challenging for the firefighters to tame the fire.
Amateur footage taken from inside a nearby house shows how close the flames came to spreading. The fire broke out at Kingston's hardware store in Skerries at around 3.30 am.
It took the fire brigade nearly four hours to bring the fire under control. Fire officer Kieran Caulfield says that the building contained a lot of flammable liquids such as paint and white spirits. Nobody was injured in the blaze.
Local resident Mark Waldron describes what he witnessed as the fire broke out.
All the gas things were exploding.
The hardware store which had been recently refurbished employs around 10 people.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 10 August 2007. The reporter is John Kilraine.
