Gardaí believe the petrol bombing of a family home in north Dublin was a botched attack intended for a man living in the Finglas area and who is suspected of involvement in organised crime.
The wrong property was targeted and the home of an innocent family was gutted instead, gardaí believe. Two women and three teenagers in the house were injured.
Much of the large three-story house in Finglas was destroyed in the blaze, with hundreds of thousands of euro in damage done.
Garda sources said the five people in the house were very lucky to survive.
It was the third arson attack, causing serious injury or loss of life, linked to organised crime intimidation in less than two months.
In the latest attack, in Finglas, a woman in her 40s, a woman in her 20s and three teenagers – two girls and one boy – were injured after a suspected petrol bomb was thrown into the property at about 12.45am on New Year’s Eve. The fire quickly engulfed the house on Creston Avenue.
The charred remains of furniture from inside the house were visible on the pavement outside in the aftermath of the attack. Significant fire damage was done to all three floors and to a side door at the rear of the house, such was the rapid progress of the blaze.
Charred items outside the house fire at Creston Avenue, Finglas, Dublin on Thursday. Photograph: Conor Ó Mearáin/Collins Photo Agency
Bloodstains were visible on the street outside as the occupants of the property, including children, injured themselves as they tried to escape. They were cut on broken glass as they jumped from windows smashed by local people who aided their rescue in the moments before the emergency services arrived.
Some of those who survived also suffered injuries as they jumped from a first-floor window while one woman was trapped and had to be rescued inside the house by firefighters.
Gardaí said the victims were brought by ambulance to James Connolly Memorial and Temple Street Children’s hospitals.
“The injuries to the female in her 40s and male juvenile are described as serious. The injuries to the three other individuals are described as non-life-threatening,” the Garda added in a statement.
Gardaí are hopeful CCTV footage recorded by cameras at houses locally, and nearby businesses, captured the attackers in the area. They have also appealed for anyone who saw anything suspicious locally at the time to come forward.
Dublin Fire Brigade said six ambulances from both Dublin Fire Brigade and the National Ambulance Service attended the scene.
“Specialist units such as a water tanker, turntable ladder and logistics van also attended the scene,” it added. “One person was rescued by firefighters in breathing apparatus and treated initially by firefighters/advanced paramedics at the scene.”
Gardaí believe the gangs behind petrol bombings and other intimidatory attacks, such as smashing windows of houses and cars or setting vehicles alight, are using young boys to carry out the violence.
Due to their inexperience, the boys have at times targeted the wrong addresses or caused much more extensive damage than intended, leading to loss of life in some cases.
The Finglas attack comes just weeks after a firebombing linked to rival drugs gangs claimed the life of Tadgh Farrell (4) and his grand-aunt Mary Hoult (60).
Their home in Edenderry, Co Offaly, was targeted on December 6th in an apparent bid to intimidate a man previously linked to the property. The fatal fire, which gardaí suspect was designed to intimidate rather than kill, quickly got out of control, trapping the victims and blocking their escape.
The boy’s grandmother, and Ms Holt’s sister, was also in the house at the time and while she managed to escape, she suffered extensive burn injuries.
The attack has been linked to a fight in a prison earlier on the same day.
A fortnight before the double murder in Co Offaly a woman was set on fire at her home in Clondalkin, Dublin. She answered to a caller at the front door of a house in Oak Downs on November 25th and was sprayed with an accelerant and set alight, suffering extensive burns.
Gardaí believe she was not the main target but was attacked as part of efforts to intimidate a man with links to the drugs trade.
Like the incident in Finglas in the early hours of New Year’s Eve, gardaí believe that woman was lucky to survive.
Though there were no fatal gangland shootings in 2025, for the first time in decades, gardaí are becoming increasingly concerned about drug-related intimidation.
Det Chief Supt Seamus Boland, head of the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, told The Irish Times last week combating the violence was now a key priority for the Garda.