'It's like a war zone... there are no rules' - Anti-social behaviour spills into Halloween celebrations

A young couple who stumbled upon a 20 ft inferno in the middle of the city said as celebrations got out of hand with an anti-social element spilling over.

Children as young as around 11 stood in Railway Street in the north inner city of Dublin unloading fireworks and sparklers into the air as a gang of hundreds of teenagers played loud dance music as they watched the huge fire rise higher as it's flames licked the air dangerously close to hundreds of apartments.

There was a high garda presence and fire crew were nearby to monitor the fire within the small grounds of the apartments.

Mehdi Sellami, (26), from France and Ines Casarigeo, (25), from Spain, were taking an evening walk when they stumbled upon the huge fire.

"Welcome to Beirut," Ines said.  "This is like a war zone. I've never seen anything like it - it's totally unorganised and dangerous and little kids are carrying and firing off fireworks."

Medhi told Independent.ie: "I used to live in this place but I moved out I came back to see at Halloween. A couple of months ago I moved out because the apartment was sold - I had no problem but for some of my room mates and some girls who came visiting us this place was not secure as their were cars being burnt out."

Ines added: "We have this tradition where I am from but not fireworks as they are illegal but this looks like war, there are little children using huge fireworks.

"The fireworks could hit someone. There's no rules, I've seen anything like this."

Mothers walked by the huge fire with children and one little girl burst into tears in her clown costume as a firework narrowly missed her.

A large number of young people who looked well under 18 were drinking larger from boxes and spirits from plastic bags as they watched the fire.

Meanwhile parents are keeping their young children far back from bonfires in the capital tonight as concerns are growing about aerosols and other dangerous products exploding.

Loud bangs are ringing out from bonfires across the north side of the city, as some adults and teenagers are throwing wooden pallets full of nails, fridges, sofas and plastic bin bags, onto vast piles to be burnt.

Darndale resident Suzanne Bollard, 41, was out at one of the fires with her friend’s young children but she was one of many adults ensuring the kids were far away from the huge infernos.

"All the kids want to come out to see the fires but at the end of the day we don’t know just what’s in them, so we keep the kids back.  Everyone is keeping the youngsters safe tonight," she said.

Shards of metal fell down through the air at some of the fires as children played nearby in their Halloween costumes.

As the fires grew across the north side of the city, gangs of teenagers also began to parade close by to the flames with plastic bags.

Jennifer and her aunt, Frances Egan, took young children from their families out for the evening in Darndale and they were also cautious in not letting them stray anywhere near the fires.

Frances said:  "It’s very peaceful and that’s the way we like it but there’s no way any of the children are going near the fire because no one knows what’s in them."

One mother with young children said:  "It’s quiet now but we do worry what it’ll be like later into the night, as you can see the teenagers are very close to the fire and they tend to start drinking later on.

"I have relatives who actually go away for the weekend to avoid Halloween. They are on edge the whole time with the fires going, the bangers and the teenagers out drinking, so they just go away instead to not deal with it."

In Railway Street in the north inner city, youths were out building fires earlier in the evening using tyres and wooden pallets. 

The Herald asked one local man if he was concerned about the toxic gas that could be released from burning tyres or the danger of aerosols and wooden pallets riddled with nails being thrown on a fire. 

"No, I’m not concerned," the 38-year-old said, "Because I used to build these fires the same way when I was a kid and the kids here aren’t bothered about the environment.  The bonfires are run by the kids now."

Dublin Fire Brigade’s Rathfarnham fire engine Delta 81 was fighting a Halloween fire near Ticknock, Sandyford. It also dealt with a fire on a roof after a firework landed on a house in Rathfarnham. And Kilbarrack Fire Station were alerted to a car fire.  The station’s B watch used breathing apparatus to deal with the inferno.

The city’s fire officers had been putting out Halloween fires across the capital from as early as noon.