A Co Longford businessman was in a serious but stable condition in hospital yesterday after being badly burned in an attempt to save his business from being destroyed in a fire.
Anthony Mulleady (55) went to his waste recycling plant just outside Longford town when the alarm was raised after smoke was seen billowing from a shed containing paper, cardboard and plastic shortly before midnight on Tuesday.
When it looked as if the fire might spread to other parts of the plant, Mr Mulleady - the company's founder and managing director - jumped on to a forklift lorry and began moving bales of the highly flammable material.
However, when he opened the door of the plant at Drumlish, he sustained injuries and was removed to the Midlands Regional Hospital in Mullingar. He was later transferred to St James's Hospital in Dublin, where his condition was yesterday said to be stable.
"Anthony went to save the plant, the same way you would save your own house if it went up in flames," said his nephew Martin Mulleady, a Fianna Fáil councillor. "I came on the scene just as he was being removed to hospital.
"The fire was noticed at about 10.30pm and I got here at about 11.15pm. There were a lot of flames here, and the fire brigade were here until about 3am."
The Mulleady family are the biggest employers in Drumlish. They run a number of building companies and a pre-cast concrete business. In the early 1990s they diversified into waste recycling. The recycling plant was closed yesterday as gardaí carried out a forensic investigation into the cause of the fire.
Neighbours and family members helped firefighters from Longford, Ballymahon and Edgeworthstown tackle the blaze, and the damage was described by the company yesterday as "minor".
Waste collections in Longford and other parts of the midlands were disrupted yesterday, but the company's environmental manager Edel Hughes said they hoped to get the business up and running inside the next few days.
"The Mulleady family would like to thank members of the Garda, fire service, ambulance crew, neighbours and friends for their assistance at this time," she said. Mulleadys employs about 140 staff, with about 70 working in the waste recycling business.