Tens of thousands took to streets for Twelfth parades, while emergency services battled.

It's been a bad week for many in the vicinity of the neighbourhoods burning bonfires at hundreds of locations last week.

Over 4,000 Police Service of Northern Ireland officers will be deployed, at a cost of around £6m.

Over 300 emergency calls were made to firefighters on Saturday night alone, as bonfires were lit across the North, an increase year on year.

Two homes at Knockleigh Walk in Greenisland near Belfast were destroyed this weekend and two others in the same row have been badly damaged.

87-year-old David Haighton has lived in the house for more than 50 years. He said thousands of embers from the fire started landing around his home shortly after the bonfire was lit at midnight.

A dry night and stiff breeze saw the house erupt in flames. His next door neighbours, a young family have also been made homeless.

A man who lives close to the site of a bonfire in Churchill Park bonfire in Bangor was quoted a price of just under £800 to fit protective boarding over his windows this year.

Residents were sent a letter by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) telling them they would deliver boards to houses.

Last year, in 2025, The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service received 277 emergency calls - more than twice as many as in 2024 - between 18:00 and 02:00 BST. Most regarding bonfires.

A man named locally as Warren Lyttle, died in hospital on Saturday after falling off a loyalist bonfire in east Belfast on Friday night.

Mr Lyttle died in similar circumstances as John Steele, who died in 2022 while helping construct a bonfire in Co. Antrim.

In 2023, at around 10pm in Newtownards in Co Down, emergency services were called about a young man who had fallen from a bonfire, ambulance workers were praised for their quick reaction to the incident, after the man's fall "from quite a height". The man had surgery for his injuries.

In 2021, a bonfire in Portadown toppled over and saw the crowd nearby forced to run for safety.

Last year, the PSNI released estimated costs for parades after years of queries by journalists at the Belfast Telegraph.

The expenditure includes £1,401,765 for 18 twelfth parades. The PSNI figures show that in 2024, the NI-wide Twelfth parades cost £1,401,765 to police and the Apprentice Boys of Derry (ABOD) August 10 parades across Northern Ireland cost £357,218 which around 12,000 people attended.

The Foyle Pride was the lowest cost at £12k, with over 2,000 attending in 2024.

The total cost of policing parades and bonfires in 2024 was £6.1m. The bill, which covers the period April 1 to August 31, also includes the cost of policing republican commemorations.

Last week, one man was arrested under hate crime legislation after a replica of a mosque was placed on top of a bonfire in Co.Tyrone.

When it comes to property, the cost is even higher.

The costs include boarding up doors and windows, removing downpipes and the clean up required when the bonfire is finished.

More than £1.4m was spent by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive in the past four years to protect and later repair homes and property damaged near annual bonfires.

The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) said that between 2022 and 2025 it recorded almost £43,000 in 12th of July clean-up costs.

Libraries NI said more than £25,000 was spent between 2022 and 2024 on measures to protect Tullycarnet Library in east Belfast from a nearby bonfire.
Many politicians and commentators aswell as residents groups have called for the end of the bonfires, nothing that unionist and loyalist culture does not need to involve dangerous pyres. However, given recent tensions and PSNI unwillingness to get involved, it appears they're here to stay for now.