The fire services and gardaí attended a fire on Barrack Street in Sligo town yesterday, Wednesday between 10am – 11am.
It’s understood that the fire started at the site of a derelict building.
The road was closed for a short period to allow emergency services to quench the blaze.
No injuries were reported.
People Before Profit councillor Gino O’Boyle is local to this area as he expresses his thoughts on how this incident is a wake up call for something to be done with the derelict houses, “This highlights the dangers which are posed by long term derelict buildings, especially the sites in the forthill area.”
He believes that “beyond being an eyesore, they’re now a safety risk for neighbouring families and friends – you don’t know what could happen the next time.”
He re-iterated that he will be fighting for something to be done with this site, “I will be back on to the council regarding an update as I know that there’s a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) on it, but we should try to get things moving a bit quicker.”
It’s a reminder that dereliction isn’t just a housing issue, it’s a public safety issue.”
Asked what he would like to see done with the site, he said “I would like to see them turned into houses on the social affordable housing scheme for everybody – there’s houses up there that are vacant for close to twenty years – there’s a massive housing list and we have no problem hiking rents up for people – it’s common sense.”
He stressed how there are thousands of derelict properties around Sligo and not just the sites in the Forthill area. The houses on Forthill are privately owned but the council is currently under the procedure of conducting a compulsory purchase order (CPO) on the sites, but the process is taking a considerable length of time to go through.
These houses have been derelict for around twenty years and have been a topic of conversation in county council meetings for quite some time by various councillors.
Councillor O’Boyle put forward a motion at the beginning of January relating to these sites, and the council responded at that time that “due to lack of progress in terms of resolving the derelict state of these properties Sligo County Council will now begin the process of compulsory acquiring the site.”
