article: In a statement, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) said it was an "exceptionally busy" night. Crews stopped a bonfire spreading to an apartment block near Belfast's Sandy Row, but the heat cracked its windows. Bonfires are traditionally lit in loyalist areas on 11 July, marking the Twelfth of July commemorations. Between 18:00 BST on Tuesday and 01:00 BST on Wednesday, NIFRS dealt with a total of 213 emergency calls. During its busiest period, its regional control centre handled one 999 call every minute. Assistant chief fire officer Alan Walmsley told BBC Radio Ulster that the two most serious bonfire-related incidents were both in Belfast. They were at Wellwood Street, off Sandy Row, and at the Bloomfield Walk/Ravenscroft Avenue site in the east of the city. Mr Walmsley said glazing was badly damaged when the Sandy Row bonfire came "very close" to a ten-storey apartment block in Wellwood Street. A number of residents who were inside the Victoria Place flats at the time called the fire service amid fears about the heat of the bonfire. "All the glazing [on the apartment block] facing the bonfire has been damaged and cracked," said Mr Walmsley. "If our crews had not been on the scene working so hard, there is no doubt that fire would have spread into that building." Lucy Ryan was inside the apartment complex at the time. She told BBC News NI: "We were standing on the first floor, looking out onto the bonfire and saw it all collapse. "Obviously we felt the heat and we saw the fire was literally coming right over to the building, so we were like 'right, we have to get out'. "We just left down the stairwell and as we were leaving to get out, that's where we saw all the windows were cracked." Earlier this week, Belfast City Council withheld funding earmarked for a children's street party in Sandy Row, reportedly over concerns about the height of the bonfire. On Wednesday morning, part of Wellwood Street was closed due to safety concerns over the damaged building. The Trafficwatch Northern Ireland service said a lane closure "is likely to be in place in the street for a number of days between Great Victoria Street and Sandy Row". Overall, firefighters were deployed to a total of 133 incidents overnight, which was a rise of nearly 50% on the same period in 2016. Despite this, the fire service said it "maintained normal service delivery throughout the evening, attending a range of operational incidents including property fires, special service calls and other emergency incidents". Mr Walmsley said: "Our crews worked extremely hard last night in extremely punishing conditions and I would just like to place on record my thanks to them." He said two fire crews were attacked as they left the scene of a bonfires in Belfast and Larne, County Antrim. "After working so hard at Wellwood Street for a number of hours to protect properties, as our crews were leaving one of our appliances came under attack by local youths. "The same situation happened in
summary: Firefighters responded to 40 bonfire-related incidents across Northern Ireland overnight, an increase of 21% on the Eleventh Night last year.