{"id":157217,"date":"2025-11-01T14:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T14:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/157217\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T14:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T14:16:07","slug":"four-children-and-adult-evacuated-after-suspected-arson-on-ipas-centre-in-drogheda-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/157217\/","title":{"rendered":"Four children and adult evacuated after suspected arson on IPAS centre in Drogheda \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four children and an adult had to be rescued from an international protection accommodation service<\/a> (IPAS) centre following a suspected arson attack on Friday night.<\/p>\n

The incident at a centre housing asylum seekers in Drogheda<\/a>, Co Louth<\/a>, led to a \u201cterrifying ordeal\u201d for residents who were subsequently evacuated. <\/p>\n

Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> said fireworks were thrown into the building and has warned of \u201cserious consequences\u201d for those responsible.<\/p>\n

The five rescued from the top floor of the building on George\u2019s Street were taken to hospital to be medically assessed. <\/p>\n

The local fire brigade attended at the scene and remained on-site for two hours. <\/p>\n

It is understood that a further 23 people, including three children under the age of 10, had to leave the building following the incident. They were placed in alternative accommodation overnight. The incident has sparked furious reaction locally.<\/p>\n

The scene has since been technically examined and a senior investigating officer has been appointed to lead the investigation from the incident room at Drogheda Garda Station. Gardai have appealed for witnesses to come forward. <\/p>\n

In a statement, Mr O\u2019Callaghan said fireworks thrown into the building caused a fire and put lives at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a terrifying ordeal for the women and children living there, a number of whom were taken to hospital. Alternative accommodation is now being sourced for the residents affected,\u201d he said on Saturday. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Halloween night sees more than 200 fire calls made to Dublin firefighters by 8pmOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed said they were alerted by the fire service at around 8.15pm and subsequently extinguished the blaze. The residents were taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda for treatment for non life-threatening injuries, the force said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scene has been held for a technical examination, the results of which will guide the Garda investigation,\u201d a statement said.<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin also condemned those behind the fire. In a statement on social media he described the incident as \u201cdeeply disturbing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo put vulnerable families, including young children, at risk is abhorrent and has no place in our society. Our thoughts are with those affected by this horrifying experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Louth Labour TD Ged Nash said the fact suspected arson was a working assumption of the authorities was \u201cchilling and sinister\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be clear. Small babies were hospitalised overnight. The deaths of children, of families, was avoided last night thanks to the response of the fire service and garda\u00ed,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf this fire occurred only a matter of hours later, we could in all probability be dealing with an unspeakable catastrophe this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor of Drogheda Cllr Michelle Hall condemned the attack which she said could have been fatal \u201cif there had been more flammable devices around the place\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said she hoped it was a case of \u201ckids chancing their arm\u201d as opposed to a targeted attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow unfortunately everyone knows it is an IPAS centre and my fear now is that it is going to be an even more targeted place and the people living there won\u2019t feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said while those in the shared accommodation may not have been physically harmed they had the compounded trauma of being homeless and having to be rescued. <\/p>\n

\u201c[The residents] have been removed. There is a strong smell of smoke damage from the building so it won\u2019t be liveable for quite a while anyway. Hopefully, they will be feeling much safer 1762006567 and supported by the Department of Justice.\u201d <\/p>\n

In an earlier social media post, the mayor had noted the amount of social media posts \u201cspreading fear, rumours, and half-truths that only divide our communities\u201d. <\/p>\n

Friday night\u2019s incident has also prompted numerous offers of assistance in the north eastern town. <\/p>\n

Local councillor Pio Smith saidpeople had immediately offered help and support to those impacted .<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had offers this morning from people who own Bed and Breakfasts saying, \u2018we have two beds, we have three beds, we have a family room if they need it\u2019,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a horrible thing to happen. To think we could have had 28 people dead last night. At least 10 of them are children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this centre has been in operation for about a year and a half. A really old period style house was renovated and behind that there was apartments built. Thankfully, the fire service got there really quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are talking about people who have come from parts of the world where they have suffered some kind of trauma. To be experiencing what they did last night adds to the suffering they had had.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four children and an adult had to be rescued from an international protection accommodation service (IPAS) centre following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[956,9,10,13415,18,13,14,6,19,56707,17,26735,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-157217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-drogheda","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-international-protection-accommodation-services-ipas","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-jim-ocallaghan","20":"tag-latest-news","21":"tag-latestnews","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115474870032855657","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}