Eight people were taken to hospital following an early morning fire at a building in Bray, Co Wicklow. The residents are receiving treatment for smoke inhalation.
The alarm was raised at around 5am after the fire broke out in one of the upstairs apartments of the building on the Lower Dargle Road.
One resident said there are 15 apartments in the building - six on the ground floor and nine upstairs.
Donal Ó Hannáin has lived in his ground floor apartment for ten years.
He said "we are all homeless now basically" after residents were told they have to leave the building.
"I saw blue flashing lights, the ambulance (man) asked us to leave the building.
"There was an awful lot of smoke, a lot of black smoke spilling out of the back of the building," Mr Ó Hannáin said, adding that other residents were standing out at the front on the Lower Dargle Road.
He said he saw two men leaning out the upstairs windows as the smoke was coming out of the building.
He said they were helped down by firemen, who extended ladders to them to get them down, and said he believes that they were two of the people who were taken to hospital.
"It's the end of an era for this building", Mr Ó Hannáin said.
He said he is thinking about where to go now,
"I do have options, I have family and friends in the area so I’ll sort that out."
He said there is at least one family with a child who were living in the building.
