This article is from page 14 of the 2012-11-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
THE number of call outs to the fire service on Halloween night was down slightly on last year, however the figure was up by 57 per cent when week-long celebrations were included.
This weekend the celebrations took a sinister turn when illegal fireworks were set off close to a fire officer who was controlling a chimney fire with colleagues at the time. Gardaí are investigating the incident that took place in the Ennis area.
The county’s fire service was called to six bonfires in total on Wednesday night, one less than last year.
Denis O’Connell, Senior Fire Officer, explained however that the fire services were called to four bonfires the previous weekend as the partying began early in Shannon, Ennis and Kilrush.
The Halloween night call outs were restricted to Ennis and the Ennistymon area.
On Thursday night there was one more call out as the celebrations began to wind down.
Mr O’Connell explained that in his experience when Halloween night falls mid-week the festivities are often drawn out over the week.
While these call outs are costly and a nuisance to a service that must contend with cut backs and austerity, the fires the service attended this year were smaller than previous years.
“The big, big fires seem to have died off because if material is seen by the Environment Section (of the County Council) it is removed because it is considered waste,” said Mr O’Connell.
He added however that Halloween bonfires waste the fire services resources, not just financially but it also uses up manpower that could be required else where at an emergency.
Early estimates put the cost to the fire service at € 20,000, although the full cost will not be known for a number of weeks. However Mr O’Connell said the message and warnings about bonfires seems to be getting through in Clare.
“We are not finding fires under wires or tress anymore. The locations seem to be better,” he said.
A crackdown on removing waste gathered for bonfires has also paid off.
Robert Burns, Executive Engineer with the Environment Section of Clare County Council, the body charged with the clean up following illegal bonfires, said the council was busy in the run up to Halloween night making people aware and gathering waste.
He said the council had a number of complaints prior to Halloween night from the West Clare and Shannon area. The council removed bonfire material from the Kilrush, Kilkee and Ennistymon area. Among the biggest hauls was one in Kilrush and a more worrying potential fire on the beach in Kilkee that consisted of tires. This would have proved a huge environmental hazard according to Mr Burns.
The council must now set about cleaning up the site of bonfires that have not been dealt with by the community. Each clean up will cost between € 500 and € 1,000, and the total cost to the council will not be known for weeks.
Mr Burns was also content that the bonfire issue was not as big as other years.
“To be fair I think most people did heed the message. It is not as big an issue as in the cities,” he said.