Clean-up bill tops €1m as Hallowe’en fires up 25%

CITY councils are facing clean-up bills topping €1 million after fire services responded to thousands of emergencies over Hallowe’en.

Calls to fire services were up by 25% on last year.

Up to 182 staff manned Dublin’s fire brigades overnight.

In Dublin alone, firefighters responded to 1,300 call-outs as many fires raged out of control.

Dublin Fire Brigade said it received 900 calls between 4pm on Wednesday and 8am yesterday.

It had received another 400 calls early on Wednesday, from fires begun during the previous night.

A spokeswoman said: “We were very busy, more than last year. Most were small to medium fires.”

A number of car fires were also put out by crews.

Incidents included a man whose arm was burnt when he fell into a bonfire in Walkinstown, Dublin.

In Dublin, firemen put out a blaze involving wood pellets at a disused factory on South Circular Road. A man was also rescued from an apartment block near Fitzgibbon Street.

In Louth, firemen yesterday afternoon were still putting out a fire involving about 2,000 haystacks near Ardagh. It had begun at 4am.

Elsewhere in the county, crews responded to nine calls, including to tyre fires and out-of-control bonfires.

One serious incident saw a shed set alight and two attached houses catch fire. The blaze began in Carlingford after a firework rocket fired into the shed roof. Firemen using breathing tanks and foam managed to put out the fires.

Louth crews also handled another two fires at a house and a malicious one that was started at a garden centre on the Dublin road.

Galway city’s fire crews said the night was calmer than last year with only 25 calls received, mainly over bonfires.

In Cork, 30 calls were answered, including a warehouse blaze suspected of being the work of arsonists.

A youth was arrested for throwing a firework into a group of teenagers in Fermoy and a large number of fireworks seized.

Gardaí in two patrol cars in Blarney were pelted with stones and bottles by gangs of youths, some of whom also smashed windows in a nearby hotel. A number of arrests were made.

In Waterford, crews tackled 28 incidents. Two house fires were reported in both counties.

Gardaí yesterday said they could not say how many incidents they responded to.