Setting off fire extinguisher '˜risk to life'

District Judge Barney McElholm made the comment as 19-years-old Kieran Kelly appeared at the local magistrate’s court.

Kelly, whose address was given on court papers as Park Avenue, pleaded guilty to causing damage to a fire extinguisher at the Riverview Apartments on October 31, last year.

The court heard a resident was able to identity the teenager as the person who had set off the fire extinguisher.

The cost of refilling it was £80 and a new fire extinguisher cost £114.

Kelly had been offered a fixed penalty notice for the offence, however, he failed to pay it and the matter was reported to the Public Prosecution Service.

Defence solicitor, Paddy MacDermott, said his client was involved in ‘Hallowe’en hi-jinks’ and didn’t think his actions through ‘at all’.

He told the court Kelly is willing to pay for the damage.

Judge McElholm said ‘setting off a fire extinguisher was like stealing a lifebuoy. It is a risk to the lives and well being of others.’

“A stolen lifebuoy is a stolen life. It is the same with setting off a fire extinguisher, it is out of commission for a while and what if there had been a fire?”
The judge adjourned sentencing for a short Probation Report and Kelly will appear in court again on April 13.