Egg firm inferno ruled ‘accidental’ as embers finally extinguished after eight-and-a-half hours

They were summoned to the blaze about a mile-and-a-half south-east of Lisnaskea at 11am, and crews were still on site dampening down the embers of the ruined shed late this evening.

The fire brigade gave the cause of the blaze as “accidental ignition”.

The Red Cross has been among the agencies helping out.

No animals or people were hurt in the blaze; the building was said to have been standing derelict.

Arlene Foster, DUP MLA for the area, said: “This is obviously a massive shock to this company and their employees.

“Thankfully there have been no reports of injury and my thoughts are with the company owners, who will clearly be distressed at this incident. “

The facility belonged to Ready Egg Products.

The firm has been going since 1982, and was previously known as Erne Eggs Ltd.

The company issued a message tonight saying: “We would like to thank everybody for their messages of concern and best wishes.

“The fire is now extinguished thanks to the efforts of Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service.

“We would also like to thank Cherry Tree Home Bakery, Courtney’s Mace, British Red Cross for supporting us in our time of need [though it was not clear exactly what support they had provided].

“Also a big thank you to the local farmers& contractors who provided much needed support and assistance to us.”

Fire brigade group commander Barry Ross said at 6pm tonight: “At the height of the incident we had 10 fire appliances in attendance – approximately 52 people at the scene.

“It’s still ongoing but we’ve scaled it down. There were no animals involved; thankfully it was a derelict building.”

The incident was dealt declared over at 7.35pm.

Fermanagh & South Tyrone MLA Rosemary Barton said: “It was worrying to hear of the fire at the egg factory today.

“This business provides a service that is widely recognised throughout the world and is a vibrant local employer.

“I trust there will not be a significant negative impact on the business and wish them well going forward.”

Company accounts show the business is large in scale, and has been performing well of late, with both revenue and profits up in 2018 compared to the previous year. Its pre-tax net profit was £7.9m (up from £7.1 a year earlier).

It had 154 production and processing workers and another eight working in administration at the end of 2018 (a total rise of 18 employees on the year before).

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