'A terrible fright' fire hits Laois family company

A fire has gutted part of the premises of a major family run Laois carpentry company.

Allwood Joinery in Ballymacken, Portlaoise is owned by the Magee family from Ballyfin, employing some 50 people and supplying high end architectural joinery furniture to major commercial customers in Ireland and Europe.

Some time over last Friday night, Saturday morning, a fire began in their solid machining area.

Fire crews from both Laois and Kildare rushed to the scene, and prevented it from spreading to other buildings, saving all works under construction.

Managing Director and Financial Controller Connor Magee told the Leinster Express / Laois Live that the family are relieved it was no worse, with luckily nobody hurt.

"Nearly everyone in the family came to the site to see it, it was a terrible fright. It could have been a lot worse, we were very lucky. The fire service was great. No one was hurt and they were able to stop the fire from spreading to our new building where all our new work is," he said.

They will be temporarily downsizing staff numbers, but will forme a plan to get back fully on track, Connor Magee said.

He thanks the other suppliers who have rallied around them.

"Luckily other businesses have rallied around to help. We are lucky with our good customer base too, both commercial companies and high end architects. We have jobs underway for Jameson and google," he said.

Deliveries can still go out as normal, Allwood have stressed in a social media announcement, sharing this dramatic photo of the damage caused.

"Unfortunately we suffered a bad fire over the weekend in our Solid Machining Area, which destroyed a few of our machines and some damage to our office area.

"Thankfully our new Building & Main Assembly area was untouched and all our work in progress is unscathed which is all being delivered to site this week with our fitting teams.

"We have a great support network from similar local businesses to assist us with our machining process so we are able to continue as usual with a slightly condensed team on our premises to ensure our current works and future works continue as normal.

"To anyone who heard in the meantime and reached out to assist us and offer us support, we greatly appreciate it. A small rebuild to do behind the scenes but for now it’s business as usual," the Magee family say.

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The company was founded by Gerry and Maggie Magee, designing and making domestic kitchens with their children later coming on board to run the business. It expanded with a move to Ballymacken in 2001. In 2010 they broke into the commercial market, making top end architecturally designed commercial joinery, with Twitter as their first commercial customer.