Near miss as timber falls from Cork City building

Shoppers had a lucky escape after timberwork crashed onto the pavement outside a busy Cork City centre shop.

Two women suffered minor injuries in the incident outside the Dealz store on Daunt Square.

However, the authorities insisted last night there is no further risk to the public after a detailed engineering inspection of the historic Queen’s Old Castle building, where the shop is located.

There were concerns that the incident was another example of a structurally unsafe building in the historic heart of the city centre. Steel support structures are still propping up the facade of three protected buildings on nearby North Main St almost a year after a partial collapse of the internal structure of the buildings.

However, city council engineers and fire officers said they are satisfied that there are no underlying structural issues affecting the integrity of the Queen’s Old Castle building itself following yesterday’s incident.

It is understood that a section of the shopfront timberwork above the shop entrance gave way following an issue with a metal strip designed to keep it attached to the front of the building.

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The alarm was raised just after 12pm when a section of the decorative timberwork above and to the left of the Dealz shop entrance came loose and collapsed onto the pavement. Two women were apparently struck by the falling debris.

Members of Cork City Fire Brigade were dealing with a separate matter just around the corner on Castle St and were on the scene within seconds and cordoned off the area.

They assessed the injured women and requested an ambulance. A doctor also attended a short while later and both women were treated at the scene — one for a minor shoulder injury, the other for a minor foot injury. 

Engineers from the city council attended and discussed the matter with representatives of the building owners.

In a statement later, the city council said: “The structure is now completely safe, there is no risk to pedestrian safety and the premises owners have arranged for their engineers to carry out further assessments.”

A section of footpath outside Dealz will remain cordoned off while the works to make safe the remain timberwork are carried out.

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