Longford Health Store officially reopens following devastating fire

Six months after the devastating fire that engulfed the shops of Grafton Court, one of the businesses impacted, Golden Health has reopened its doors.

The Longford town centre health shop, owned by Kathleen Regan had only been open for about two weeks before disaster struck.

“It was scary, I was watching it on Sunday morning (July 28), obviously the fire engines were there and we were just hoping that it wasn’t going to spread to our shop.”

It didn't thankfully, however, Golden Health was not exempt from the damage.

“We suffered from water damage. We didn’t have actual fire damage because the fire services were concentrating on trying to contain the fire. There was a danger that it would spread to the Main Street.”

Also Read: Revealed: The local roads in Longford that will benefit from €10.2 million funding

Following the fire, the whole store had to be stripped of any products that were there. The shop hadn't yet been fully stocked as it had only been open for two weeks.

“The building was damp and we had to dispose of the stuff we had, we had to get a cleaning company in and paint and clean the walls and shelves.

Also read: Huge milestone: Over €1m is being pumped into six exciting Longford tourism projects

“That was the minor part I suppose, then we had to deal with the insurance people.”

The fire left one-half of Grafton Court deserted for months and saw the residents living on the other side of the street evacuated.

For Kathleen there is one silver lining to the disaster, no one was hurt.

“Anybody could have been there,” she said.

“I think they had to be evacuated from across the road because there are some apartments across there.

Also read: Longford Garda leaves the army for a more community based role

“The fact that this was Saturday night into Sunday, maybe there was less chance of people being in the shops anyway.

“Still anything could have happened. It’s just very lucky that no one was.

“Such little regard for human life,” she expressed.

“There was a time I spent all night there.”

Down Memory Lane | Longford students step out in style for their graduation ball in 2006

Now after a long and arduous six months, Golden Health is officially reopened for business .

“I'd like to apologise to the customers for being gone,” concluded Kathleen.

Also read: RIP: Longford saddened by death of highly respected historian and author Jude Flynn