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Updated 10.41pm
AT LEAST 12 firefighting vehicles from Dublin Fire Brigade are currently dealing with a fire on the top floors of a building in Ballymun on the northside of Dublin city.
The building in question is the Metro Hotel complex at Santry Cross. Authorities first became aware of the blaze shortly after 8pm.
Road closures are in place as emergency services continue to deal with the situation. It’s understood that traffic in the area is currently at a standstill and that drivers should use alternate routes if possible.
It has now been confirmed by Dublin Fire Brigade that all occupants of the building were successfully evacuated. It’s understood that those evacuated were moved to a nearby hotel.
At present Dublin Fire Brigade says it has no record of any casualties resulting from the fire.
“It is the case that everyone is safe,” said local Fine Gael TD Noel Rock. “Some families were affected from the apartments above the hotel, but everyone is safe.”
The fire has spread across at least five floors at the top of the complex, with the ninth and twelfth floors visibly the worst affected.
Firefighters wearing specialist breathing apparatus are now inside the building amid ongoing efforts to extinguish the blaze.
In the last few minutes firefighters have got a hose through onto the 9th floor. The blaze has been much reduced visibly in the last hour according to witnesses on the ground on the outside.
It’s understood that the Metro hotel comprises the lower part of the building, with the floors which are visibly on fire containing apartments, though those units are part of the same complex.
At least 12 units, including several specialist firefighting vehicles have attended the scene, while a mobile command centre has also been set up.
Other emergency service vehicles on scene include ambulances, Garda vehicles, ESB networks units, and county council vehicles.
A crowd of several hundred people has been drawn to the blaze, which is being kept behind a number of cordons.
Local councillor Noeleen Reilly, who is nearby, earlier said that the blaze appeared to be across several floors of the complex.
Nikki Hayes / Twitter
Nikki Hayes / Twitter / Twitter
It had been suggested that the building was at one time used to house homeless families in the Dublin area – however it has since emerged that no homeless persons have stayed at the Metro for at least the last 12 months, and that Dublin Regional Homeless Executive’s contract in the area is with a separate hotel.
With reporting from Daragh Brophy
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this whole “my bill is bigger than your bill” malarkey is pathetic.
I read as far as the first line of the Green Party bill (after the definitions).
It says “No person shall sell or manufacture products containing micro-beads or add micro-beads to cosmetics, soaps or similar products.”
the rest is just clarification on this ban and how to monitor it.
what more do we need?
@stopit: “Billy waving” i think is what they call it ….
Don’t know why this is taking so long and FF attitude is appalling. Must be because the lizards use the microbeads to get rid of loose scales.
The only reason these exist is because of marketing… plenty of natural exfoliants, silicon, quartz, cellulose that are just as effective. But they just don’t look as attractive as bright blue or orange in the animated representation of the product in use during ads and give it that something extra to make it seem different.
True, and there’s absolutely no doubt that when these were dreamed up by some marketing genius, they were fully aware of the completely pointless environmental destruction they would cause. And they did it anyway. Ban them immediately. Then introduce “more robust” legislation later.
I wouldn’t give marketing execs that much credit, microbeads are far cheaper to produce than exploiting natural exfoliants; environmental impact is often overlooked when taking an existing material in a new application. BTW, unless you’re work in Intel or something I think you mean Silica ;)
Typical FF new politics my arse
FF – “Oh gosh no, we can’t make a decision for ourselves! Lets wait and see what Europe tells us to do”
@William Roche: You mean Merkel lol.
What a bunch of lies FF are telling the greens bill is as comprehensive as it’s possible to be more so than most countries that have enacted bans. The only sense it is restrictive is restricting the further pollution of our Environment pity FF don’t seem to value that.
Surely this should be a worldwide thing if not an EU thing to get this excess plastic out of the environment?
What sort of conscience do these manufacturers have to make this stuff in the first place
***Profit***
Those coffee pods are also an environmental time bomb that nobody talks about!
@Philip Kenna: Who cares about the environmental impact? George Clooney’s gawjus…
The ban should be at European level , you can exfoliate just as well with shower gel and salt or oil and salt mixed together .
Here’s an idea d1kheads in the oireachtas. Why not sit down together and draft legislation that will work instead of the usual one upmanship..
Manufacturers don’t need time to adapt, just stop putting that shit in their products.
Boycott them all until they remove the beads
Shame on Ireland
When will they discuss puppy farming and animal abuse???
I am more worried that something that goes down thee same hole as my faeces and urine ends up in rivers and seas.
Great to see our political parties tackling the urgent, important issues.
@Daisy Chainsaw:
I sense sarcasm, maybe if you took time to understand the issue and the incremental effects these beads can have over time you’d see it as an important issue worthy of government time. You might also see that what’s being reported is a snapshot of why ordinary citizens are disgusted with politics.
@Daisy Chainsaw:
Couldn’t agree more!!!
This is an important issue
@Daisy Chainsaw: It is killing the wildlife that other wildlife feeds on, it is polluting our environment and killing wildlife.
A bulking agent to make a profit on goods, god knows what they are made from but they end up in the rivers and sea as well then in the wildlife.
The type of plastic used in them might effect the hormones in wildlife and in people as I do not think they care what the plastic might be made from. Can you imagine if it was recycled farm plastic waste lol.
I think salt would be better for you than these plastic beads?
Why would they do that?
Darn we’ll be sweating beads of plastic sweat.
I am SO angry about that political fudging. Microbeads are getting into the food chain via seafood/fish. They were recently found in Plankton. No debate, they are a known toxin. Big pharma HAVE to stop their production NOW – end of.
Would some one please tell the Greens to politely F off. They did nothing in power they will do less put of it
have your say