A stairway may have been deliberately damaged at the construction site of the National Children's Hospital before a fire was lit nearby in a bid to cause harm to workers.
In the latest sinister blaze at the Dublin 8 site, workers were forced to flee down a set of stairs and one had to jump to safety as it began to collapse on the morning of July 12.
The Irish Mirror can reveal gardai are now probing whether the stairs, two flights of which toppled, were sabotaged before the fire was sparked.
The arson attack is the latest of around 20 such incidents since May.
A source said: "This was yet another very dangerous incident in which people could have been seriously harmed.
"It is very suspicious that the stairs gave way when workers fled the fire.
"That is certainly something that is being looked at and if it was purposely damaged to injure people on site."
Investigators suspect that the fires may be being started by someone working on the site.
But gardai have yet to identify anyone in relation to the attacks.
A second source added: "Since these fires began, there has been a sinister element to them. And obviously people are concerned it is getting out of hand now."
Gardai confirmed that the investigation into the latest attack is ongoing.
A spokesman said: "Gardai in Kilmainham are investigating an incident that occurred at a construction site on James Street, Dublin 8 on Monday morning, 12th July, 2021.
"No arrests have been made at this time and investigations are ongoing."
We first revealed last month how the construction site was being targeted with fires from May 26.
Within a week, 15 had been lit, seven of which in one day.
In one of the earlier incidents, a bollard was set alight before being flung down an elevator shaft.
Some of the fires have been large and have forced work to be temporarily stopped on a number of occasions at the vast site and evacuated.
It is understood that there could be up to 1,500 workers on the vast site at any one time.
It's the latest trouble to hit the hospital, set to cost over €1.7billion, which has been plagued with delays over disputes between its main contractor BAM and the National Paediatric Health Development Board.
BAM were contacted for comment yesterday evening.
