UK NI - Look out below! Bonfire tire stack collapses prior to Eleventh Night use

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Bonfire stack piled 40ft high with tyres collapses just days before 'Eleventh Night' celebrations in Northern Ireland. (Daily Mail)
Build it, and they will come, goes the saying... but not if it comes crashing to the ground first.

This was the scene on an estate in Northern Ireland after a 40ft stack of tyres, due to be set alight as part of an annual loyalist celebration, collapsed today.

The bonfire had been prepared for the Eleventh Night, a reference to the night before July 12 - a Protestant commemoration of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

And while some residents in Ballycraigy, Antrim, might have welcomed the bonfire, others would have been more wary - as the tower was built perilously close to homes.

The structure, comprising more than 25 layers of tyres and pallets, came tumbling to the ground under its own weight, according to website UTV.
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It is illegal to burn the tyres, which emit toxic fumes - and bonfire committee workers had previously removed stacks in the area on safety grounds
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Last year, there was a significant drop in the number of bonfire-related incidents - down from 49 call-outs between 6pm on July 11 and 8am on July 12 in 2011, to 29 during the same period in 2012.
more, with pictures and an Eleventh Night/Battle of the Boyne sidebar, at link above

Eleventh Night and Battle of the Boyne. (Wiki)
 
Yet more tire stacks:

The leaning tyres of Belfast: Protestants pile up incredible bonfires
as they prepare for inflammatory celebration of Battle of the Boyne
. (Daily Mail)

• Huge tyre stacks more than 100-ft tall built ahead of Protestant celebration
• Hundreds of fires will be set alight at midnight tomorrow
• 550 parades due to take place throughout Northern Ireland on Friday
• Has previously sparked violent clashes between loyalists and nationalists
• An extra 630 police officers will be drafted on to the streets
 
Lovely. Try living where I do this weekend. *sigh*
 

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