WATCH: Car owner desperately tried to extinguish garage forecourt fire
Dramatic video has emerged of the moments just after a fire started on a busy Meath filling station forecourt.
The incident happened at approximately 9.40pm at Applegreen's busy service station at Navan Retail Park last night (Monday). It's understood that a car pulled into the station where smoke began emanating from the bonnet and caught fire soon after, the flames narrowly avoided spreading to the pumps just inches away. Nobody was injured in the incident.
The filling station was fully opened this morning with the pump nearest the blaze that destroyed the car sealed off as a precaution although it didn't appear to have been affected by the fire.
The owner of the car tried in vain to put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher but was beaten back by the flames while Applegreen staff initiated emergency procedures and contacted Meath Fire Servcie. In video clips sent to the Meath Chronicle by Kim S and Giedrius K, fire crews are soon on the scene and begin to extinguish the flames.
Flames engulf car on busy forecourt.... Videos courtesy of Kim S and Geidrius K
In a statement to the Meath Chronicle today, a spokesperson for Applegreen confirmed that an incident occurred yesterday evening (December 18th) at the Navan Retail Park Service site, when a customer "arrived on site with smoke coming out of the engine of their car. The engine subsequently caught fire, but thankfully, nobody was injured.
Pump sealed off at the Applegreen Service Station in Navan Retail Park.
"Health and Safety is our number one priority at Applegreen. The Applegreen emergency response procedure was activated as soon as staff became aware an incident was occurring." As part of this procedure, emergency services were contacted immediately to assist with handling the incident."
"Applegreen would like to express its gratitude to the emergency services that attended the scene to assist our team on site in dealing with the situation."
Applegreen's new service station in the Navan Retail Park opened last January, creating 50 new jobs and is Applegreen's second service station in Navan, with one already located on the Kentstown Road. The new service station is located on the Northern Link Road which connects north Navan to the M3 motorway and caters for over 34,000 cars every day.
Services at the new 24-hour Applegreen station include; Shop, Bakewell Café, Burger King (including drive through), Subway, barista coffee, self-service and automated carwash, seating area for 110 and children’s play area.