Firefighters told the Irish Farmers Journal they were called to what appeared to be a hay barn fire shortly after 7:30pm on Tuesday on the Ballacolla road out of Abbeyleix.

When they arrived, they found three buildings well ablaze, including stables from which valuable thoroughbred horses were evacuated to safety. The burning structures also included a workshop containing machinery spare parts and a former slatted shed converted into a warehouse used to store palettes of nappies. Firefighters were able to use the technique usually applied to bales of straw or hay, spreading them out in a nearby field and dousing them with water.

The Abbeyleix crew first at the scene called reinforcements from Portlaoise and Durrow and three crews, supported by two tankers pumping water from a nearby stream, battled the flames until 3am.

While the three buildings and their contents were fully destroyed, no injuries to people or animals were reported.

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Straw shed goes up in flames in Co Laois