Cork City Fire Brigade was busy on ‘Bonna Night'

Cork City Fire Brigade had a busy Friday night as crews around the city worked hard dealing with bonfires lit on St John’s Eve.

St John's Eve, or Bonna Night as it is known in Cork, is an annual Christian folk tradition of lighting bonfires celebrating the summer solstice which occurs around June 21, the longest day of the year.

A spokesperson for the Cork City Fire Brigade said they had slightly less than 50 call outs across the evening, considerably less than the 100 or so call outs which were typical years ago, pointing to a downward trend in the number of fires being lit.

Ahead of the evening’s festivities, Cork Fire Service had asked the public to keep fires small and under control, consider that some neighbours may have medical issues compounded by smoke, to use non-toxic items, and to respect fire crews as they worked.

The number of incidents were in the “high 40s”, covering the whole of Cork city right throughout the evening, said a spokesperson. “That’s between bonfires and just regular rubbish fires, that we would get any other night of the week,” he said.

The Fire Service was supplemented by a crew dedicated solely to bonfires.

“That truck, what we call the Bonfire Truck, dealt with approximately 25 calls last night, between 6pm and 1am this morning. At one o’clock it ended. Our social media presences and all our messages are getting out there. People are being more kind to the environment. It is definitely a dying trend. We didn’t have as many bonfires,” said the spokesperson.

Many of the calls were duplicate calls, to the same bonfire, two or three times.

“We had to put out approximately, a quarter or so of those 40. Some were well supervised, and people were ringing in because they saw smoke in the area. We had one or two isolated incidents, where people took advantage of burning rubbish to start bonfires,” he said.

No one was injured, and there was no damage to fire engines. There was one incident early in the night, when young children threw stones at a fire crew.

Crews from Anglesea Street dealt with a bonfire on Forge Hill, while a Ballyvolane crew dealt with a bonfire in Farranree, and one in Mayfield.

The special ‘bonfire truck’ was operated by six members, one officer and five firefighters, along with three regular crews.

The City Council had supervised events in The Glen, Churchfield, and Togher, which helped with the younger children, said the spokesperson. 

“We used to have up to 100 calls on Bonfire Night, traditionally. So that’s nearly a 60 per cent drop in figures, from 15 to 20 years ago.” The black smoke is now seen as environmentally damaging, and the fires also destroy local green areas, he said. 

“People appreciate the green areas for their children, so they’re not going to let them burn rubbish there.” 

Separate to the bonfires, the Anglesea Street crew dealt with a container on fire near Vernon Mount in Douglas, at about 4pm.

A crew from Anglesea dealt with a small fire in an office building in the Mahon area in the morning. The incident took place in a basement shower unit, caused by an electrical fault.

“We had three units in attendance. Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus extinguished the fire and ventilated the area using Positive Pressure Ventilation,” said a spokesperson.