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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Brendan Hughes

Fire Service safety concerns over bonfires detailed in site inspection database

Almost 200 bonfire sites across Northern Ireland were inspected by the Fire Service last month to assess any safety issues, newly released records show.

The size of some bonfires and their close proximity to neighbouring properties were among the concerns noted by fire crews in a database of site visits obtained by Belfast Live.

Firefighters had to consider concerns over a bonfire in the village of Artigarvan in Co Tyrone being built close to an electricity transformer.

Read more: MLA says Stormont ministers 'squandered' public money on court dispute over Belfast bonfire

Nearby electric and phone cables were also noted in records for an Eleventh Night bonfire in Tobermore, Co Derry.

In Belfast, a bonfire up to 10 metres high (33 feet) in Ballybeen in the east of the city had "properties on three sides".

A similarly sized pyre off the Blacks Road in West Belfast was "close to trees", while another bonfire in Crossnacreevy in the outskirts of the city was built in a "playground".

Some 185 bonfire sites were inspected by the Fire Service ahead of July 11, according to a database of site visits obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

Crews usually attend sites in the days leading up to the Eleventh Night and record information including a bonfire's location, materials used and any property or utilities that could be impacted.

The records give an insight into the operational challenges faced by fire crews in dealing with some bonfires.

The Fire Service has previously insisted these records do not amount to formal risk assessments and are instead used to examine how crews should respond to potential issues.

In Larne, firefighters noted the scale of a pyre in Craigyhill where builders sought to break a world record for the tallest bonfire.

Crews said in the "operational summary" section of their notes: "Building on large field - aiming to build very tall bonfire 200ft approx."

A site visit was also carried out for a bonfire in the neighbouring Antiville estate in the town where a man tragically died after falling from the structure.

There were no operational summary notes recorded about the bonfire, as was the case for dozens of others visited by fire crews.

Around 250 bonfires were lit in loyalist communities across Northern Ireland last month to usher in the Twelfth of July, the main date in the parading calendar.

Fire crews attended 35 bonfire-related calls between 6pm on July 11 and 2am on July 12 - a 12.5% decrease compared to the same period last year.

The latest records emerge amid widespread condemnation of the placing of poppy wreaths, flags and images on a nationalist bonfire in Derry.

The bonfire in the Bogside area displayed images of the Queen, a PSNI Land Rover as well as flags and wreaths. A large crowd gathered to watch the bonfire being lit on Monday night.

Police said they were treating it as a hate crime. They are also investigating reports of possible shots being fired in the area that evening.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson condemned the bonfire as an “outrageous and offensive display of hate”, while Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly described the scenes as "absolutely disgraceful and wrong".

SDLP leader and Foyle MP Colum Eastwood in a tweet said: "This is totally out of order. Why do they need to mimic the worst elements of loyalist culture?"

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