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The rapid spread of fire through the upper floors of a hotel and apartment block building in Dublin poses ‘serious questions’, a local politician has said. Several floors of the complex in Ballymun near Dublin Airport were engulfed in flames on Wednesday night as at least eight fire crews battled to stop the blaze spreading. “There is also a lot of debris falling out the windows.”

The Dublin fire brigade said there were no reports of injuries or missing people at this stage. “As of yet we have no reports of any casualties or people unaccounted for.”

The Metro Hotel building compromises hotel rooms on the lower floors and residential apartments on the upper floors. It had earlier been reported that the hotel had been used to accommodate homeless families, but Inner City Helping Homeless have stated that there were no homeless in the hotel for the past 12 months. It seems like everybody was evacuated very fast.”

Taxi driver Patrick Canning said he had just dropped someone to the hotel a few minutes before the fire. “There are no reported injuries at this stage.”

Mr Flynn, a co-founder of the Inner City Helping Homeless organisation, said pieces of debris could be seen flying from the blazing building in scenes similar to the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London. But a spokesperson for the Dublin Region Homeless Executive has confirmed there were no homeless families being accommodated at the hotel. Dublin’s chief fire officer has insisted the nature of the fire at the Metro Hotel in Ballymun is not comparable to the Grenfell Tower blaze that killed 71 people last year. It appears to have started on the top two floors but has spread downwards and upwards.”

As well as the large Dublin Fire Brigade presence, gardai and ambulance crews were also on site. Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan tweeted: “Hearing reports of bad fire at Metro Hotel Ballymun, really hope everyone is out of the building and safe.”

Erica Fleming, whose apartment overlooks the hotel, said she could see and hear windows exploding as a result of the heat. Road closures are likely to affect traffic in the morning #Dublin #fire #Ballymun @DCCTraffic @aaroadwatch pic.twitter.com/qewyJlUvHV — Dublin Fire Brigade (@DubFireBrigade) March 22, 2018 Local Fianna Fail councillor Paul McAuliffe said the blaze was “one of the most significant fires in the Dublin area in recent times”. “One of the messages I would like to get through to people today who may be afraid by having seen a fire like this and they are living in apartments or [are] tenants or own apartments, that this was not a Grenfell Tower type of incident and the second thing is it is very, very important if you are living in an apartment to be fire safety aware,” he said. "We believe everyone got out safely", Dublin city councillor Noeleen Reilly said in a tweet.
A fire breaks out in the upper floors of a hotel and apartment block building in Ballymun, Ireland, near Dublin Airport. The fire affects the top seven floors of the building and two floors of apartments, without casualties.