HOMES are being boarded up close to a contentious loyalist bonfire in east Belfast which will be lit tonight.
Contractors have placed boards over windows in several homes close to the pyre in Ravenscroft Avenue car parkl/Bloomfield Walkway.
It is one of four bonfires subject to a Belfast City Council injunction granted last Thursday which was aimed at preventing further material being added to the pyres.
Last year a number of homes at Hopewell Square in the Shankill area of the city were damaged when embers from a nearby Eleventh Night bonfire set the terraced properties alight.
Families had to be rescued and the Housing Executive repair bill was £90,000.
Last year the Irish News revealed that clearing up Twelfth bonfires has cost the taxpayer more than £500,000 over four years with councils, roads chiefs and the Housing Executive having to repair damage caused by the pyres.
Housing Executive workers in East Belfast this morning boarding up homes beside #bonfire pic.twitter.com/bQn3aH4NVv
— Kevin Sharkey (@tv_KevinSharkey) July 11, 2017