Monday 11 July 2011

Fort Sydenham


The enormous bonfire, comprising old tyres, wooden palettes etc, waiting in readiness for ignition later. It is located at King George V Playing-Fields, adjacent to the Oval football-grounds.

Observers are advised to bring sausages and hamburgers for cooking from a safe distance!

Surely it must be forty feet tall?

11 comments :

Robert said...

Old tyres! surely this is against health and safety regulations as well as being anti environment.Lord Belmont, I think your photo /comments may be 'tongue in cheek' as I am sure a gentleman of your standing does not support bonfires etc.
Hope you are well.

Timothy Belmont said...

I don't express any opinion! Just photographed it.

The bit about burgers is meant to be humorous. :-)

NickyBe said...

I just hope the wind is blowing away from my house.

Anonymous said...

An environmental disaster. 'A tyre fire releases a dark, thick smoke that contains carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and products of butadiene and styrene. After extinguishing and cooling down (which may last several days), the site must be surveyed and toxic chemicals neutralized.' Surveying and cleaning up costs come out of our rates. Not good. VC

madpierre said...

I thought there was an agreement,made several years ago, that no tyres were to be used in these bonfires in order to protect us from these toxic chemicals.

Anonymous said...

Oh dear Lord Belmont- I'm sorry to say you have gone down in my estimation.A photograph of a bonfire is the last thing one would expect to see on your blog.

Timothy Belmont said...

I pass that site en route to the gym on my bike most days and thought it would make a photo - it is quite conspicuous.

Never mind.

Anonymous said...

LA-DE-DA!!

NickyBe said...

Slugger O'Toole has an article about the construction of this very bonfire, with a 5 minute sound clip interview with one of the men involved.

Five minute guide to building a bonfire
http://sluggerotoole.com/2011/07/11/five-minute-guide-to-building-a-bonfire/

The article notes "Rob explained a bit about the use of tyres – they’re double the height of the pallets so helps with height, particularly when pallets are in short supply. This bonfire is one of the few in Belfast that’s not working with Belfast City Council’s management scheme."

Alan in Belfast (Alan Meban) said...

Sorry - behind in blog posts and only reading this now. It started to burn, nearly too quickly ... lacked the kind of slow burn that would have built anticipation. On the other hand, good to get it over with as fast as possible!

I posted some video and photos from the night over on Slugger too.

Markethill Bill said...

Just think of the damage to the enviroment caused by these eyesores, they should all be banned