Officers 'flat out' battling blazes for spooky season

He said firefighters are still in the dark about what caused the spike last year, and said up until that point, the number of incidents was declining.

- BY DANNY DE VAAL

Each year, groups of youth stockpile wooden pallets and tyres to build a bonfire.

In recent years, a hotline has been established so that residents in an area can report where materials are being stored, allowing them to be removed.

Mr O'Dwyer said this has been a massive success, firstly by reducing the number of bonfires across the city as a whole, but the ones that remain are also smaller as a result.

Looking ahead to Halloween this year, he said: “We're expecting it to be busy again.

“Weather has a lot to do with it, but the fact that it's on a Friday and nobody has school or work the next day...