LAST UPDATE | 29 May 2023
SOME FAMILIES WHO have nowhere to go following a fire at a high-rise in Blanchardstown yesterday have been given temporary accommodation by the management company for the building.
Windows were “blown out” with seven apartments now unhabitable according to local Sinn Féin TD Paul Donnelly.
Assessments are taking place today on the damage to the building with efforts underway by the ESB to restore electricity to the complex.
No injuries were reported from yesterday’s blaze which Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) brought under control.
“You can see the damage is extensive, and I think this will take a very long time for those apartments to be usable again,” he told Claire Byrne on RTÉ.
Donnelly said he was glad that Fingal County Council “has acted so quickly” in housing the families who are now without somewhere to stay, adding that he hopes the building’s management company can undertake repairs as soon as possible.
A spokesman for Fingal County Council said it was “assured” by the management company that all residents have been given a roof over their heads since the fire.
“Our Housing Department have been in contact with the management company of the apartment to help ensure all those impacted have access to any necessary services and accommodation. Staff were also on site this morning and will continue to engage with those affected,” the council said,
“We have been assured that all of the residents whose apartments are temporarily uninhabitable because of fire damage have been provided with alternative accommodation and we will work with residents and the management company as progress is made with works to repair damaged apartments over the coming weeks.”
Earlier, local TD and government minister Jack Chambers told Morning Ireland on RTÉ that it was understood that the “fire began on a balcony and spread externally”, which would be assessed by the Fire Service and gardaí as part of separate investigations.
Keith Markey, a fire officer with DFB, told the programme that the damage was mainly focused on the building’s exterior and that its “interior safety systems” seemed to work well.
DFB released footage of a a turntable ladder being used to reach up to the top floors of the complex to extinguish the blaze.
Emergency services were called to the fire at the complex next to the Crown Plaza Hotel in Blanchardstown.
Video footage and photos from the scene showed smoke billowing from a number of floors.
Hundreds of residents, onlookers and patrons from the neighbouring Crown Plaza hotel watched the blaze.
Kiowa Daly, a resident on the seventh floor of the high rise building, was in his apartment when the fire began.
He said: “I could hear some crackling and sizzling and I thought someone might have just had a barbecue or something on their balcony, which isn’t allowed in the first place.
“That was my first thought and I could hear it and I went to my girlfriend and I said, you know, I think someone has a barbecue or there’s a fire.
“At this point, the fire alarm hadn’t been set off yet, so I went and did a double check out on the balcony and I could see some ashes falling from above me.
“I said, ‘right we need to go’, at that point the alarm went off as well. So we grabbed our stuff that we could get, my keys and my wallet, so then we just left.
“We’ve been out here for the last two or three hours, just waiting for an update.”
Daly said there was emotional scenes as people watched their homes become an “inferno”.
“Lots of emotions, I’d say. Lots of people were around,” he said.
Another resident of the building, Hrvoje Lasic, returned home after a day out to see his seventh floor apartment ablaze.
“I run away straight to see what’s happening, so I know there’s loads of vehicles firefighters and everything,” he said.
“I was in fear that my apartment was gone. So it was terrifying.”
Lasic said he may be forced to sleep in his car until he is offered help from the building management.
He said Fingal County Council is also providing assistance, with families who had nowhere to go following the fire being put up by the building’s management company.
“The management company did accommodate families last night and will continue to do that I understand,” Chambers said.
“We’ll be working with them to make sure that there is a coordinated response and that families are supported during an extremely difficult period.”
Additional reporting by PA
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