Firefighters tackling large blaze at former religious order building in Dublin

Firefighters tackling a blaze at the old Augustian building in Ballyboden, Dublin. Picture: Dublin Fire Brigade

Firefighters are tackling a large blaze at a vacant former religious order building in Dublin which was the subject of controversial housing plans.

Dublin City Fire Brigade said it has five fire engines, including a turntable ladder, at the vacant building fire on Taylor’s Lane in Ballyboden, on the city’s southside.

"We expect to have crews on scene through the night and have received great assistance from partner agencies as we continue to extinguish the fire," the brigade said in a post on social media.

Firefighting operations are continuing at the #Ballyboden St. Augustine's fire.

We expect to have crews on scene through the night and have received great assistance from partner agencies as we continue to extinguish the fire. pic.twitter.com/iBOxQmrXYJ

— Dublin Fire Brigade (@DubFireBrigade) August 20, 2024

It also has three fire engines at the site of a fire at a derelict building near Ticknock.

Smoke is drifting across neighbouring suburbs and the fire service urged anyone affected by smoke to close their windows and doors as a precaution.

The building off Taylor’s Lane is on the former Augustinian order owned site which was sold in 2019 for some €20m to Shannon Homes, which in 2020 applied for planning permission through the strategic housing development (SHD) process for almost 500 apartments on the site.

An Bórd Pleanála approved the scheme with conditions later that year but the decision was quashed by order of the High Court in 2022.

The Ballyboden Tidy Towns group had warned as recently as last month that the site needed to be secured following a spate of recent fires on the site.