THE OPERATORS OF a Cork shopping centre where dozens of cars were destroyed by a fire say there is “no time frame” for when owners will be reunited with their vehicles.

More than 100 vehicles remain in the car park of Douglas Shopping Centre in Cork city, which was the scene of a large fire on Saturday evening.

There were no casualties or injuries in the huge blaze, which started when one vehicle in the car park caught fire.

The fire was contained to one section of the centre’s multi-storey car park, but a large number of parked vehicles were damaged or destroyed and a significant amount of damage was also caused to the building.

The scene is being preserved by gardaí and the shopping centre remains closed until the structure of the building has been deemed to be safe. 

 In a statement yesterday evening, the operators of the shopping centre thanked emergency services for their response to the incident, and said that an information line had been opened for those whose vehicles were still in the car park.

They also confirmed that engineers working at the site said that both the building and its adjoining car park could not be accessed until further notice.

“[We] are trying to come up with a plan for removals from the car park to have these vehicles handed back to you but have no time from on this either yet,” the statement said.

“We are not in a position to advise anything else rather than the above for now but wish to assure you that our team and our consultants are treating this with the highest urgency.”

Bartosz Mieszala, the manger of the shopping centre, said that many vehicles in the car park were “completely destroyed”.

“Obviously getting those cars back to their owners is a key item for us at the moment,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.

“The problem is that they still won’t be able to drive them out. We looked at alternatives yesterday, but when we lost access to the building, it made it a little bit more complicated.

“We’ve concentrated on collecting a database and we have a contact number for all of the drivers.”

Anyone with a vehicle still inside the car park is asked to call 087 9509800.

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