Northern Ireland

Fire-destroyed Fermanagh shed may have been drying woodchip

A Fermanagh shed before a fire destroyed it earlier this month. A tractor is using a wood chipper and funnelling the product into the shed
A Fermanagh shed before a fire destroyed it earlier this month. A tractor is using a wood chipper and funnelling the product into the shed A Fermanagh shed before a fire destroyed it earlier this month. A tractor is using a wood chipper and funnelling the product into the shed
By Gareth McKeown

A Fermanagh business whose shed containing eight biomass boilers was destroyed by fire earlier this month may have been drying woodchip.

Pictures have emerged which show operations at the site in the Magheradunbar area outside Enniskillen, before a major fire gutted the building.

The shed, approximately 20m by 12m went up in smoke along with the boilers and roughly 14 tonnes of woodchip on the morning of January 6.

The Fire Service has said the blaze is being treated as "accidental”.

The pictures show a tractor working at the shed and using a wood chipper.

In one such picture the chipper is funnelling woodchip into the shed. A large amount of the finished product is also visible within and at the rear of the building in the pictures.

There are two active businesses listed at the Fermanagh site, according to Companies House –construction firm Drumco Limited and Corby Biomass Systems Limited.

The latter has two directors, Padraig and Ronan Corby from Co Leitrim and was set up in October 2015.

The business is described as the “manufacture of other products of wood; manufacture of articles of cork, straw and plaiting materials”.

It is believed the company rented the shed and part of the premises from Drumco and the wood boilers were first installed in around October 2015.

BEFORE: The Fermanagh shed before a fire destroyed eight boilers and almost 14,000 tonnes of woodchip
BEFORE: The Fermanagh shed before a fire destroyed eight boilers and almost 14,000 tonnes of woodchip BEFORE: The Fermanagh shed before a fire destroyed eight boilers and almost 14,000 tonnes of woodchip

It is unclear whether the wood pellet boilers were operating with subsidies from the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme

The company could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Two former Ulster Farmers Union presidents have previously confirmed they were drying woodchips and obtaining subsidies from the green energy scheme.

Ian Marshall, who was UFU chief at the time of his application in 2015, placed three burners on his Co Armagh farm, which are used to dry sawdust for lining cattle pens.

Mr Marshall said he was one of the many legitimate RHI applicants who had been made to feel like "criminals" for availing of the flawed scheme.

Another former president of the UFU John Gilliland also admitted that he has three boilers drying wood chip around the clock, for which he gets paid £80,000 a year from the RHI scheme.

On Wednesday the Irish News revealed a Fermanagh business also drying woodchips for an "industrial process" and in receipt of RHI. The director said he was saving £3,000 a month on heating bills after changing from oil boilers.