“It’s a towering inferno,” joked Dublin Fire Brigade station officer Trevor Hunt as the emergency vehicles approached a small bonfire on a plot of land in Cherry Orchard on Wednesday night.
The fire crew quickly extinguished the blaze. They seemed almost apologetic for the lack of Halloween-related action.
The crews had more than enough other calls to keep them busy, however, ranging from car crashes to heart attacks to suicide attempts. Later in the night, firefighters, all of whom are trained as paramedics, were called to Dame Street where a male pedestrian had been fatally hit by a truck.
It was a dry, cold night. Perfect bonfire weather. For Dublin Fire Brigade, Halloween starts around the end of August, with groups setting off fireworks and prematurely igniting stashes of pallets. Often a group will set a rival neighbourhood’s stash on fire before Halloween to eliminate the competition. “Everybody wants to have the biggest fire,” explained Hunt.
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But on Wednesday night, the fires were few and far between.
“Hope you get something interesting”, said firefighter and advanced paramedic Derek Riordan after helping to extinguish another small bonfire on a green area in Tallaght.
For Dublin firefighters, Halloween just isn’t what it used to be. Not that they are complaining.
Bonfires and antisocial behaviour during Halloween have been on a mostly downward trend in recent years, explains Hunt.
Councils are far more proactive in locating and removing piles of wood stockpiled by young people ahead of October 31st. Residents can ring a hotline to report caches of material and council workers use drones to find hiding spots.
In response, bonfire enthusiasts have had to up their game. Hunt described one group of young people who last year donned high-vis vests to disguise themselves as council workers while collecting pallets. “All they were missing were hard hats and a safe pass.”
Visits by firefighters to schools in the run-up to Halloween to explain the dangers of bonfires and fireworks have helped a lot, he said, as have the many family friendly events staged by Dublin City Council on the night itself. Over 50 such events will take place across the capital on Friday.
However, a quiet night on Wednesday is no guarantee of the same on Halloween night. Last year’s activity bucked the trend of declining bonfire numbers, with Dublin Fire Brigade responding to one emergency call received every 70 seconds.
That could have been a one-off or could signal a reversal of a declining trend, said Hunt. Much will depend on the weather. Thursday night saw heavy rain which will likely dampen any stockpiles. More rain is expected for Friday.
Regardless of the weather, October 31st will still be one of the three busiest nights of the year for Dublin Fire Brigade, along with St Patricks Day and New Year’s Eve.
“It’s a night of two halves,” said Hunt. Before midnight, calls largely concern bonfires. After midnight, it’s drunks, fights and people tripping over in their “outlandish costumes”, he said.
Fireworks continue to be a problem and Hunt expects at least one person will suffer a serious injury.
There is also the largely unspoken fear that asylum seeker accommodation will come under attack on Halloween night, following riots outside the Citywest Hotel in Saggart last week. Gardaí have committed to maintaining a presence at the site until Halloween passes.
Hunt has clear memories of responding to the fires on the night of the 2023 Dublin riots and having to be safely guided through the streets by gardaí to extinguish a blazing Luas. “I never thought I would see that in my own city.”
Another new problem is people throwing gas canisters into fires, including nitrous oxide canisters which have become a ubiquitous sight on the streets in some parts of the city. These can explode, injuring anyone standing nearby, Hunt says.
Several calls come through the radio about small fires with groups of young people standing around them. In one case, fire fighters decide to leave them be, judging that the blaze poses little immediate risk to anyone.
“Halloween is the one time you’re at risk of attack,” said Riordan. Sometimes fireworks will be aimed at fighter fighters responding to a blaze, he said.
However, the vast majority of the time there is no trouble. It can be a different story when the Garda arrive to escort the firefighters. “That can trigger it,” said Riordan.
“We probably have an easier time than the guards do,” said Hunt. “When we arrive we are generally wanted there.
“At the same time, there can be antisocial behaviour. The most important thing for us is the safety for crew and the safety of residents.”
More calls came in on the radio. A child was choking on walnut on the northside, the dispatcher said. On the other side of the city two men were found unconscious at a bus stop.
One call came in about a bonfire in Lucan, with a group of young people standing around it. Gardaí had already been called.
Hunt speeds towards the address. By the time he arrived, both the fire and the youths were nowhere to be seen.
