Fire crews faced with hostility at Halloween bonfires

THE fire service in Clare had to respond to four bonfires on Halloween night, one in Shannon and the other three in the Cloughleigh area of Ennis.

A spokesperson for Clare County Council said there was some trouble in dealing with the Cloughleigh bonfires.

“Yes, there was opposition to the fire service when we arrived in Cloughleigh, however procedures were in place to deal with such incidents and the Fire Service worked with An Garda Síochána to respond to the calls.”

Councillor Mary Howard said that many people had fun on Halloween night and children enjoyed trick or treating, but the type of anti social behaviour seen at Cloughleigh cannot be tolerated.

“That kind of behaviour cannot continue. It is wrong and it has to be stamped out,” she said.

“It’s a night that everyone should be able to enjoy and to be in a safe environment. Parents or whoever is in charge of those young people need to be responsible,” she added.

What the fire service does for the public is vital and must be respected, Councillor Howard stressed.

“They are doing their job and ensuring that everyone is safe. People need the fire brigade, it’s so important that they be able to access sites where there is danger, and be able to access them as quickly as possible. They need to be safe and to ensure that everyone else is safe.”

While fireworks are illegal, they are also very prevalent around the county now, despite clear dangers.

“I don’t know where they’re getting them. They were out the Lahinch Road, I saw them out the Tulla Road, I could see them in Cloughleigh from my house,” said Councillor Howard.

“They’re very dangerous, I was talking to someone who has a family member who is a surgeon in another jurisdiction and they were saying the amount of really bad hand injuries after Halloween was quite extraordinary, and it’s all from fire crackers and fireworks, people don’t know how to set them off safely.

“When you see them going off they do look spectacular and all the rest of it, but they are so dangerous. Someone could lose a hand or a finger or burn themselves in the face or worse.”

Councillor Howard said that she would like to see a properly organised and well run bonfire and fireworks display in the town in the future, which she feels could discourage the unauthorised bonfires and fireworks.

In Shannon, Sergeant Seamus Mulligan said that Halloween hadn’t been overly problematic.

“It was relatively quiet, there were a couple of incidents that weren’t Halloween related but nothing out of the ordinary.”

Separately, he said that four houses had been raided in Shannon last Friday, with a significant amount of drugs found in two of them, including quantities of amphetamines, cocaine and cannabis, as well as a sum of cash.

Sergeant Mulligan said that there will be a lot of focus on drug dealing in the town in the coming months.