SOUTH DUBLIN County Council is expected to carry out a full inspection today of the burnt-out remains of Bolton Hall, a protected structure in Ballyboden, which was destroyed by fire last Friday.
Gardaí are treating the fire, which started at attic level, as suspicious and have put a crime scene boundary around the premises.
Nearby residents took photographs of men on the roof breaking in and have shown these to gardaí.
Local residents had warned that the house, which dates from 1818 and had been vacant for the past five years, was in danger.
“This was a fire waiting to happen,” said Des Moffat, of Glendoher Avenue, Ballyboden.
“I watched with great sadness from my upstairs window as fire engulfed this protected structure and scoffed at the term ‘protected’. What a joke that was,” he said, adding that the onus was now on the council to ensure it would be rebuilt.
“The blaze was so intense that the fire brigade ran out of water and there were six appliances,” said Angela O’Donoughue, vice-chair of the Glendoher residents’ association. “It is likely that the walls will collapse, according to the fire brigade.”
Ms O’Donoghue said firemen dealing with the blaze had remarked that this “is not a case of vandals passing by with a lighter in hand – not this scale and intensity – and it took hold so fast. Local gardaí say that within 10 minutes it was gone.” The council issued an “endangerment notice” to the owners in August 2008.
It required that all entry points be secured and gates locked “to ensure that the house and outbuildings are fully secure” as well as regular monitoring of the premises by a security firm.
Afterwards, the front door of the house was boarded up and the entrance gates padlocked. But local residents continued to complain that unauthorised access was still a problem. Last February gardaí removed intruders who had got in through an open window.
On March 19th Mr Moffat wrote to the council saying he was very concerned about the safety of Bolton Hall, as there was no fire alarm or active security system on the building and it could be “easily and discreetly accessed by intruders, as has been seen”.
On April 21st, after carrying out an inspection, the council wrote to the owners, Michael Burke and John Staunton, of Burkeway Properties, Ballybrit, Co Galway, saying that an “updated response” was required from them to the endangerment notice.
The letter pointed out that Bolton Hall was a listed building and also a “matter of importance” to members of the council’s Terenure-Rathfarnham area committee, who wanted a plaque erected to commemorate a previous occupant, artist Seán Keating.
It was agreed that a representative of the owners would inspect the site on a weekly basis and that “feedback from these visits should be passed on to an official in the local authority”. Local residents have since sought copies of any such reports.
Burkeway Properties had sought planning permission to develop 92 new homes and a creche on the 4.5-acre wooded site. The first application was made in 2005, after Bolton Hall had been designated a protected structure in the council’s 2004-2010 development plan.
Donough Cahill, director of the Irish Georgian Society, said the real question now was “what can be done to ensure the house is rebuilt?”, given that whatever action was taken by the council to safeguard it wasn’t enough.
Glendoher residents’ association is preparing a “maladministration” complaint against the council to Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly.