Bonfire material removed due to 'significant' gas pipe fire risk

A Stormont department has said it removed bonfire material from under a road in Londonderry because of a fire risk due to nearby underground gas mains.

The Department for Infrastructure (DfI), accompanied by police, removed the material including wooden pallets from under Lecky Road flyover in the city's Bogside early on Wednesday morning.

A DfI spokesperson said that the "illegal storage" of the pallets under the flyover posed a "significant fire safety risk" as there were gas mains under the tarmac.

The Lecky Road was closed for a time following the removal of the materials, with police saying some items had been set on fire on the road.

It was closed for a second time after pallets were again set on fire later on Wednesday evening, with police asking motorists to avoid the area.

Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme SDLP councillor John Boyle said there had also been "some sporadic confrontations between youths at interface areas" on Wednesday night.

"I think the important thing this morning is that everyone remains calm over the next 24, 48 hours, " he added.

BBC News NI has asked the Police Service of Northern Ireland for comment.

Boyle said initially it had been thought there was to be no bonfire in the Bogside this year.

But, he said, in recent days "a real possibility that any prospective bonfire may well have going to be built on the road" had emerged.

"That presented a real problem for the local neighbourhood, local people, a real threat to life and a real threat to property," Boyle said.

"There's a major gas pipeline which sits just inches underneath the road network in that and that neighbourhood," he said.

Bonfires on 15 August are traditional in some nationalist areas of Northern Ireland to mark the Feast of the Assumption.

A bonfire in the Bogside has attracted large crowds in recent years but has also faced some criticism over the burning of poppy wreaths, as well as unionist flags and symbols.

Previously the bonfire has been built and lit at Meenan Square, now being redeveloped in a multi-million pound regeneration project.

A bonfire was previously built on the flyover - a main road in and out of the Bogside area of Derry - in 2016.

Speaking in Derry on Wednesday, First Minister Michelle O'Neill welcomed the removal of the materials.

O'Neill said: "I commend those who have removed the pallets and everything else, all the material, because none of us wants to see these anti-social bonfires in our community."

Boyle said more than 450 pallets had been removed on Wednesday morning.

They had, he said, been removed from a storage bay or tunnel underneath the flyover.

"That's an awful lot of pallets. They were obviously stored very surreptitiously and in a very clandestine manner because it took the local people who live in the neighbourhood completely by surprise," Boyle said.

Boyle said the DfI must now clarify if the approach taken in the Bogside is one "that they're going to be taking in relation to storage of bonfire materials on their property irrespective of where it is and irrespective of who's building a bonfire and why they're building that particular bonfire".