Today was the university’s Open Day, during which secondary school students come to see first hand what the college has to offer to it’s potential new students. Technically, the Open Day is two days cause it runs on the Friday and the Saturday. The clubs and societies have a marquee in which we can show off what we do and try and get some new recruits for Clubs and Socs Day. So in the marquee it was us (Amnesty Soc), Epic Soc (the trilogy of comedy, film and drama) and a few of the GAA clubs. The day seemed to be going pretty well, our stall was getting a good few interested people, then the guy who was on the stall with me got a text telling him that the canteen was on fire. We thought this was a joke at first, but upon looking out the door of the marquee we could see a long plume of white and grey smoke coming from the direction of the canteen.

Infront of the canteen not long after word spread about the fire

Within an hour the clear winter’s day blue sky above us was half clouded with black filthy smoke and we could see black shards of debree or something caught floating in the air above the canteen. Standing outside of the marquee it sounded like Halloween night, with the continuous pops and bangs of a fireworks display. These weren’t fireworks though, one of the guys told me that it was the slates on the roof exploding off the roof with the heat of the fire. No long after we could see the flames rising up with the smoke into the air, before that it was only the smoke. The flames didn’t get any higher in the air and couldnt be seen for much longer. Black smoke

More smoke

The thing about the slates possibly explains the black debre in the the air. Aside from the pictures I have a video taken from outside the marquee watching the smoke, you can hear the poping of the slates, but towards the end of it, there’s a more shattering bang, which I think might’ve been the windows. After the fire had been brought under control and we’d finished for the day we went to see the firemen were walking around the smouldering remains and the extent of the damage. The canteen has been completely gutted, and the new extension onto it had only just been completed. The extension itself seems relatively unscathed, perhaps a little damage to the roof where it’s connected to orginal part. Where the kitchen was and the main body of the canteen have suffered the most. The windows were gone, the roof has completely collapsed, with the bare exposed beams pointing out like the bones of a charred carcass.

In the spirit of the Maynooth Experience, those of us involved in Clubs and Socs continued on with the show, going out into the stationary crowds, who’d been moved back to the John Hume building to stay a safe distance away from the fire, to encourage them to come into the marquee to see the performances. It was a bit difficult getting people to turn their attention back to what the college had to offer, people can’t help but watch a disaster. Like the saying about the train wreck goes, you just can’t take your eyes off it, but eventually the crowds started to filter down. The rest of the day went on without a hitch. From what’s been said on campus, everyone got out of the canteen safe and sound. No one knows yet what caused the fire, but the presumption is that it was a kitchen fire that got out of hand. This is possibly going to have so many more knock on effects than just putting the canteen out of action. The sports complex shares the same building with it, so there might be damage done to the sports halls and the storage room with all the clubs gear and equipment. We won’t know for awhile yet.

At least there weren’t any casualties.