Is your home safe? Were fire safety issues ignored due to cost implications?

Michael Clifford reports on the increasing nervousness among residents of buildings constructed during the boom years that the ‘light touch’ regulations of the time have left their lives in danger

SHEILA was in her friend’s house across the street when her home began to go up in flames. She asked her friend to look after her five-year-old son and ran across the road to the complex, on Station Hill in Clongriffin on Dublin’s north side.

She was living in a two-storey duplex. She entered on the lower floor, which included the two bedrooms. The smoke was overpowering.