Firemen who rushed to rescue a 93-year-old woman and her family from a burning house found the local water hydrant had been wedged shut.
Three tenders rushed to the scene of the blaze outside the village of Killygordon.
However, when the fire service attempted to refill their tenders, they discovered they couldn’t open the hydrant cover.
Instead, the fire service had to search for another source of water as the fire raged.
A farmer living nearby was able to direct the fire tenders from Letterkenny, Ballybofey and Strabane to another source of water to refill.
Despite the brave efforts of the fire service, the house at Drumcannon was completely gutted.
There were three members of the Whitham family in the house when the blaze broke out on September 25th last at around 5pm.
Local Councillor Patrick McGowan at the sealed fire hydrant. (North West Newspix)
The family managed to get out of their home but lost all their belongings.
The 93-year-old woman suffered from smoke inhalation but was otherwise unhurt.
Local county councillor Patrick McGowan, who lives in the area, said lives could have been lost because of the situation.
“It is by pure luck that we are not speaking about lost lives here today.
“I can completely understand the frustration of these fire officers.
“Can you imagine going to the scene and flames coming from a house and you cannot get access to a water main because it has been wedged closed?” he asked.
Cllr McGowan has called for a full investigation into why access to the water hydrant was blocked.
He added that a full audit of all hydrants should be carried out to ensure that other hydrants are accessible.
“How do we know that water hydrants across the county are not blocked.
“How do we know that there could not be a blaze tomorrow and we cannot access a source of water.
“Only for the quick reaction and local knowledge of this farmer who ensures that the water hydrant beside his land is kept clear, we could be dealing with the loss of three lives here.
“I will be raising this issue at council level but we need either the council or senior fire service personnel to address the accessibility of these water hydrants.
“If we don’t act on this very serious issue then we could well find ourselves with a much more serious situation on our hands the next time there is a house fire,” he said.
A spokesman for Irish Water said they are looking into the issue.
Meanwhile, a Go Fund Me Page set up for the Whitham family has raised almost all of the €3,000 target to help the family “get the basic essentials they need to start to rebuild their life again after this devastating tragedy.”
To contribute to the Go Fund Me page follow this link https://www.gofundme.com/fundraiser-for-jenna039s-family
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