NI fire service sees reduced number of Eleventh callouts

Fire crews dealt with a reduced number of Eleventh Night bonfire incidents in Northern Ireland this year, a spokesman has said.

A total of 29 calls were received between 6pm last night and 1am - 12 of which required active intervention - a reduction on the 44 last year, and 54 during 2013.

The fires are an annual tradition ahead on the eve of the Twelfth of July - the high-point of the loyalist marching season - and communities often compete to build the biggest structure.

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 4

Houses are boarded up to protect them from a bonfire in the shankill area of Belfast on Eleventh Night. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire

In east Belfast, more than 30 firefighters used water jets to cool properties at Chobham Street.

Although a bonfire as been built on the site just off Newtownards Road for many years, there was some controversy over its size and close proximity to terraced houses this year.

More than 50 homes were boarded up and a number of residents moved out after warnings that their lives and properties were in danger.

Meanwhile, in New Mossley, Co Antrim, one of the largest fires collapsed soon after it was ignited, but there were no reports of any injuries.

Effigies of Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Gerry Kelly were also torched on another Co Antrim pyre.

A Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: “It is likely that reduced call numbers were due to the fact that July 11 this year fell on Saturday and a number of bonfires may have been held over to be ignited on the evening of Sunday July 12.”

More bonfires are expected to be lit tonight ahead of the Orange Order parades.

The PSNI will have 1,500 officers specifically assigned in Belfast to try to ensure that Orange Order parades pass off peacefully on Monday, senior officers have said.

In all, 3,000 officers will be policing the 18 Orange Order and one Independent Orange Order parades that take place throughout Northern Ireland on Monday with the biggest PSNI presence at three flashpoints in north Belfast, east Belfast and close to the city centre.

With the Twelfth of July falling on Sunday, the annual Orange celebrations, in line with the institution’s sabbatarian traditional, are being held on Monday.

As usual, the biggest focus is on the return parade of three north Belfast Orange lodges on Monday night. The lodges, as happened in the past two years, have again been banned by the Parades Commission from returning along the Crumlin Road at the Ardoyne shops, at the interface between the Catholic and Protestant communities in north Belfast.

Instead, the commission has determined that they cannot go beyond the junction of Woodvale Parade and Woodvale Road, which is about 300 metres from the Ardoyne shops.

Meanwhile, four Union flags have been stolen from a war memorial. Flag poles at the monument in the centre of Kilrea, Co Derry, were also damaged during the early morning incident.

A spokesman for the Orange Order, which decorated the memorial in preparation for its annual Twelfth of July celebrations, described the theft as “ a deplorable act carried out under the cover of darkness”.

He said: “Such war tributes should be sacrosanct and those responsible ought to be ashamed of their actions.

“Their wickedness is deeply offensive not only to unionists, but the wider community in Kilrea and the surrounding area, and more so to the memory of those who fought in two world wars.”

The Order said it would replace the flags “immediately”.