Homeowner seriously injured patching up mica cracks

A mica-affected homeowner in Donegal has sustained serious injury while trying to patch up cracks in his house, where water was dripping in, before the onset of winter.

The man suffered two serious breaks to his leg, last week, and had to undergo surgery.

Speaking to Donegal Live, Michael Doherty, the PRO of the Mica Action Group said it was an example of what we are going to be up against in Donegal.

He said: “I just dread the day that we are going to get a phone call about a fatality here. I am dreading the day we get a phone call, not about a seriously broken leg but instead a fatality, resulting from someone trying to do the right thing by their own home while we await a decent scheme.

“Or it will be because of a house caving in after a storm or something along those lines. And the other one that is out there is the mental health. There are people here at breaking point and that risk of suicide is out there all the time.

“I am just dreading the day that phone call comes through, genuinely dreading the day that phone call comes through, that, despite all our efforts here, we were just too late for somebody.”

He continued: “This was a guy whose wife reached out to us in the group to tell us what happened. This is where the mica situation is at now.

“He was up on a ladder and the ladder shot out from underneath him. He was reaching across to try and get into some cracked areas that were gaping at this stage.

“The family were getting water dripping into the house and the fella had to do something about the cracks.

“He went up himself because you can't get tradesmen to come out and do anything now. They are all tied up. They are all busy.

“He just decided to take it into his own hands and went up on the ladder. It shot out from underneath him and he fell badly. He has what was described as serious breaks requiring surgery on his leg.”