Fire in high-rise building in Blanchardstown brought under control

The fire broke out in a high-rise in building Blanchardstown this afternoon.

A fire that broke out in a Dublin tower block earlier this afternoon has been brought under control.

Some seven Dublin Fire Brigade units rushed to a high-rise apartment block beside the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Blanchardstown.

Black smoke could be seen earlier in the afternoon billowing from what appeared to be an apartment balcony about four floors from the top.

Flames could also be seen coming from inside one of the apartments.

By around 6.30pm, the fire brigade tweeted that the fire had been brought under control and it had started to release fire engines from the scene.

A turntable ladder was used as a water tower to help extinguish the fire.

A number of social media accounts - most of which are anonymous - made a variety of unsubstantiated claims about how the fire had started and in what type of accommodation the fire had started.

It is understood that those who were inside the building were safely evacuated and that nobody was hurt in the blaze

Kiowa Daly, a resident on the seventh floor of the high rise building, was in his apartment when the fire began.

He said: “I could hear some crackling and sizzling and I thought someone might have just had a barbecue or something on their balcony, which isn’t allowed in the first place.

“That was my first thought and I could hear it and I went to my girlfriend and I said, you know, I think someone has a barbecue or there’s a fire.

“At this point, the fire alarm hadn’t been set off yet, so I went and did a double check out on the balcony and I could see some ashes falling from above me.

“I said, ‘right we need to go’, at that point the alarm went off as well. So we grabbed our stuff that we could get, my keys and my wallet, so then we just left.

“We’ve been out here for the last two or three hours, just waiting for an update.”

Mr Daly said there was emotional scenes as people watched their homes become an “inferno”.

“Lots of emotions, I’d say. Lots of people were around,” he said.

He added: “There’s lots of onlookers, the people in the hotel as well had to evacuate as it’s right beside the apartments, so hundreds outside watching the inferno.”

Mr Daly added that from what he could see from the exterior of the building his home was “completely burnt”.

Another resident of the building, Hrvoje Lasic, returned home after a day out to see his seventh floor apartment ablaze.

“I run away straight to see what’s happening, so I know there’s loads of vehicles firefighters and everything,” he said.

“I was in fear that my apartment was gone. So it was terrifying.”

A person believed to be living in the property, at the scene of a fire in the Falcon's View apartment block in Blanchardstown near Dublin. 

Mr Lasic said he may be forced to sleep in his car until he is offered help from the building management.

Former Socialist party TD Ruth Coppinger was alerted to the scene by a resident.

Ms Coppinger said the speed at which the fire spread across floors was concerning.

“The situation is it seems to be that there’s at least a dozen apartments that are directly impacted with fire and damage,” she said.

“The really scary thing is how quickly it spread, somebody showed me a video they took, a resident, within five minutes, five floors the fire had spread.

“I mean that’s actually, serious questions there about building regulations, that there isn’t a stop on floors.

“It also seems to have started on one floor and gone up and down.

“Again a lot of concerning things there because they’re planning on doing a lot more high-rise apartments in this centre.”

Ms Coppinger also said the management company was responsible for residents in the “immediate term”, and stated that “Blanchardstown is the epicentre of the housing crisis”.

~ Additional reporting from PA