{"id":488730,"date":"2026-06-08T08:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T08:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/488730\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T08:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T08:56:14","slug":"its-devastating-families-left-homeless-after-fire-severely-damages-dublin-apartment-complex-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/488730\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s devastating\u2019: Families left homeless after fire severely damages Dublin apartment complex \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dozens of families have been left homeless<\/a>, including several who face destitution from Monday, after a fire severely damaged an apartment complex in north Dublin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former residents say the billion-euro Comer Group, owner-manager of the Auburn Park complex in Castleknock, has treated them \u201cvery poorly\u201d since the blaze, which broke out shortly after midnight on May 21st\/22nd.<\/p>\n

They say Comer Group, which is valued at a reported \u20ac1.09 billion and owns luxury hotels and residences across Ireland, Britain and continental Europe, terminated their leases days after the fire without informing them of their legal right to return after refurbishment on the same rents. This has since been guaranteed to them. <\/p>\n

Former residents have been given no commitment as to when they can move back, other than \u201csix to nine months\u201d. They say they were given no assistance in finding alternative accommodation and not referred to Fingal County Council. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe fire-damaged apartments in Auburn Park. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Residents told The Irish Times they got short \u201cslots\u201d to pack up their damaged belongings with threats that whatever they couldn\u2019t remove in that time would be dumped. None was assisted or provided with boxes or storage facilities.<\/p>\n

All 45 apartments have been left uninhabitable due to fire, smoke and water damage. Of these, nine were owner-occupied and 36 were let by Comer.<\/p>\n

Though the majority of households moved in with friends or family \u2013 arrangements most say are unsustainable \u2013 a number were provided with empty Comer-owned apartments or hotel-rooms. <\/p>\n

They were told last week they had to leave these by June 4th. Following intervention by local TD Emer Currie and the council, the arrangements were extended. <\/p>\n

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One family, including two children aged four and 17 months, had to leave their hotel room on Friday. They moved in with friends over the weekend. \u201cThey will need housing support from the council this week,\u201d said Currie, a Fine Gael TD for Dublin West.<\/p>\n

The father, who did not want his family identified, has been told emergency accommodation \u201ccould be in Lucan, Celbridge, the city centre\u201d. He works and his four-year old goes to preschool in Castleknock. \u201cThis will not work,\u201d he says. They were in Auburn Park for five years. <\/p>\n

\"RepairRepair work at the fire-damaged apartments in Auburn Park. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

A widowed father of three children aged four, 12 and 14 has been told Comer will not pay for the hotel room they are in beyond Monday. An Auburn Park tenant for 18 years, he says his young family has \u201clost everything\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be homeless on Monday. I\u2019ll have to go to Fingal and see if they can help. I have a housing application with them since 2012. My wife died in 2024. I am horrified at how Comer is treating us. They have no empathy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helga Muir, a tenant for 15 years, says she was given \u201can hour\u201d to clear her belongings on Thursday. She, her 27-year-old daughter and their dog, are staying in a \u201cbox room\u201d in her sister\u2019s friend\u2019s house, almost 40km away in Skerries. <\/p>\n

She shows the significant damage to their former home. <\/p>\n

\"HelgaHelga Muir in her fire-damaged apartment bedroom in Auburn Park. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

The roof over several top-floor apartments is destroyed. The entire building smells of smouldering ash and stairwell carpets are sopping wet as water drips through ceilings. <\/p>\n

Muir\u2019s apartment is coated with thick ash and pools of water are everywhere. Friends have helped with boxes, refuse sacks and a trolley. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has had to throw out thousands of euros worth of stuff. It\u2019s devastating,\u201d says Muir. <\/p>\n

Like some other tenants, she says she was not woken by fire alarms during the fire but by neighbours banging on her door. Several have raised concerns alarms were not working in some parts of the complex. <\/p>\n

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All who spoke to The Irish Times said once they all got out they tried calling Comer\u2019s emergency helpline for 40 minutes without it being answered. A Comer representative arrived on scene they say some time after 4am. Those with nowhere to go were bussed to a Comer-owned hotel in Tallaght where they stayed together in a function room until later that morning. <\/p>\n

Muir, like others, is \u201cangry\u201d. She asked: \u201cThere are no protections. We are exhausted, we are going though huge trauma and are just dumped out into homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HelgaHelga Muir\u2019s possessions in her fire-damaged apartment in Auburn Park. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni\/The Irish Times \"HelgaHelga Muir\u2019s possessions in her fire-damaged apartment in Auburn Park. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Currie said: \u201cTenants who experience something like this should not be on their own. Generally Fingal council has been very supportive but I don\u2019t think the property group should be let off the hook. <\/p>\n

\u201cComer are a very large company with access to accommodation. I do not feel they have treated their tenants, in their hour of need, well. They have responsibility to families who are distressed.\u201d <\/p>\n

A spokesman for Fingal County Council said: \u201cWe can confirm support and advice has been offered to a number of [Auburn Park] tenants who are being dealt with directly, on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur dedicated housing support staff will continue to work with other stakeholders to support any residents who contact us, providing specialist housing advice and various supports to those affected during this difficult period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comer Group did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of families have been left homeless, including several who face destitution from Monday, after a fire severely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10863,61,60,43,10864],"class_list":["post-488730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-bestof","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-topix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}