COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

MOTION NO. 9

MOTION: Councillor J. Graham

"That this Committee agrees that the Council undertake an estate wide inspection of the properties in Tor/Meile & Buirg An Ri as it is reported that the back of the fire in some homes is not sealed and this poses a fire risk."

REPORT:

A maintenance request on this house was lodged on 19th January and inspected the following day. Having determined that the situation was not a fire-risk Cliffords Fireplaces were requested to close off the gap at the chimney breast. A follow-up inspection was carried out on 6th February.

This unit was first occupied on 16th February 2004 and up until 19th January 2017 no MRFs have been raised with regard to the fireplace. The fireback is still brand new and fitted to proper specification, the concrete hauncheon on the top of the fireback is in perfect condition and the flue gathering/ flue liner junction is also fitted to specification. The fire breast is of concrete construction with a coat sand & cement plaster and finished with a skim coat of plaster. All of these materials are non-combustible and properly constructed..

The existing fireplace that is fitted is not a standard SDCC fireplace and was fitted by a previous tenant leaving a 3cm x 60cm gap between the granite fire surround and the chimney breast and filled with Rockwool. While the arrangement is unsightly it is not dangerous or combustible and not a fire risk..Clifford fireplaces will carry out some remedial works to cover the Rockwool on this fireplace in the coming days.

Three independent surveys have been carried out in Balgaddy in addition to the Council surveys from 2011. These surveys identified random small-scale issues in fire-seperation, and door-closers all of which were addressed 6 years ago. No evidence emerged of systemic fire-safety problems and there have been no fire-safety events in the scheme. In the case above there is no fire-safety problem and a full survey as requested would cause disruption to hundreds of families to no purpose. A large number of units have no fireplaces at all and Technipoint contains no history of Dublin fire brigade being called out to Tor An Ri, Meile An Ri & Buirg An Ri estate to extinguish a chimney fire since the scheme was tenanted