Bonfires, bogus calls and medical emergencies: A night with Dublin Fire Brigade at Halloween

A small plume of smoke was wafting into the air. A mattress and what looked like building site debris formed the crux of the bonfire in a green area between several homes in Killinarden, Tallaght.

Members of Dublin Fire Brigade extinguished the flames and hosed down the surrounding area to prevent the youngsters responsible from being able to reignite the blaze.

Tallaght-based sub-officer George Harrison said it was a small blaze on this occasion, but action needed to be taken.

“Because it’s behind the resident’s house who called in the fire, we want to make sure it’s fully extinguished,” he said. “Otherwise, we’d be coming back and forth here all night.”

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Bonfires are a fixture of the busy Halloween period for fire services across the country. Besides being illegal, they can easily spread to nearby bushes, trees and homes, especially during and after spells of dry weather. The tyres and mattresses that are often thrown on to the wood pallet piles also release toxic chemicals.

To see first-hand what Dublin Fire Brigade faces over the Halloween period, The Irish Times rode-along with Tallaght firefighter and paramedic Trevor Hunt on Saturday night. He said the end of August marks the beginning of the period when firefighters begin to see low intensity bonfires. By September and into October, the numbers increase.

At Finglas fire station, firefighters were enjoying a curry dinner that would sustain them for their 17-hour shift. Saturdays usually involve a 16-hour stretch, but the clocks changing for daylight savings was adding an hour.

Most firefighters seemed reluctant to agree, afraid to jinx it maybe, but admit noticing a decrease in bonfires over the past several years.

Finglas station officer Dan Fynes said bonfire-related incidents are less frequent than when he first began 19 years ago.

“That being said, there’s been a massive amount of work being done by the councils to ensure that any stockpiled material is removed so it doesn’t get the chance to be set on fire,” he said.

Fireworks, he added, are harder to come by than in previous years, which likely accounts for a decline in related injuries and accidents.

While his station has not had to respond to any major bonfire incidents over the past couple of weeks, Fynes said they have been busy with medical calls, fires and routine emergencies. He also stressed that Halloween wasn’t over yet.

When leaving Finglas fire station, a call came over the scanner saying that someone had been stabbed twice with a machete in Fairview Park. On arrival, there was an ambulance, a fire engine, two armed response units and a Garda patrol car but no sign of a casualty.

Hunt said gardaí recognised the phone number as belonging to a man with mental health issues who has made bogus calls to the emergency services in the past. Although officers searched the park and surrounding area, they were unable to locate the allegedly injured man.

Next up was a bonfire in Crumlin. But by the time we arrived, firefighters had already extinguished it. Graham Ball, who has worked for three-years at Dolphin’s Barn fire station and attended the scene, said “several pallets were on fire. Around 10 public order gardaí and three or four uniform gardaí were on-hand to make sure the scene was safe for us to extinguish the fire”.

Ball said the bonfire was started by a group mostly comprised of youths under the age of 18. Antisocial behaviour is often seen with the older demographic, who can be intoxicated and in some cases seek to prevent fire crews from putting out the fire. If that happens, firefighters wait for gardaí to arrive.

It was 11pm and the Crumlin bonfire was only Dolphin’s Barn fire station’s third call of the night. Ball said he was expecting it to be busier and credited the efforts of gardaí and Dublin City Council for the decline in calls.

“Gardaí have been dispersing youths away from the bonfires. The county council has done a lot of good work in the run up to Halloween in removing any rubbish or collections as well,” he said, adding that a public-relations campaign advising local businesses not to leave rubbish that could be used in bonfires out for collection had helped.

Teresa Hudson, a firefighter and advanced paramedic, concurred. She said that while it had been busier of late, most of that has been medical emergencies. So far that evening she had responded to a Covid-19 related call, a couple of unwell individuals, someone who had fallen and an intoxicated man who had to be taken in because he had nowhere else to go.

“The council have a collection service so people can call in and let them know where it has been stashed and they will go out and remove it. It has reduced the amount of fuel load they have for a bonfire,” she said.

While there were small bonfires in Killinarden and Crumlin and a few groups of youngsters dragging wood pallets down the streets, there was little to scare around town on Saturday other than some Halloween costumes.

Harrison says you never know what you will get in the fire service, each night is different and tomorrow is a new day.