Gorse fires delay trains in Enniscorthy

WHILE Bunclody Fire Service battling and monitoring a huge forest blaze at Coolmelagh woods on the Carnew Road, Enniscorthy Fire Service have also faced a busy time due to the dry weather.

With conditions remaining so dry in the warmest weather Ireland has seen in over 40 years, gorse fires have become a major issue and the Enniscorthy crew were forced to leap into action on a number of occasions in recent days.

On Friday evening, a gorse fire near the railway line at Clonhaston resulted in trains being suspended for a time between Enniscorthy and Gorey until crews brought it under control. The incident took place at around 4 p.m. and the fire crew in attendance had to seek permission from Irish Rail to go onto the line and battle the blaze. Huge bushes were up in flames and were burning right up to the tracks and it took the crew about an hour and a half to bring everything under control and dampen it down, resulting in major delays for commuters.

Yesterday night at around 8.30 p.m. a second unit was required as Enniscorthy Fire Service responded to a major gorse fire in a field behind the Vocational College and Enniscorthy Enterprise Centre.

‘It was hard to get at,’ a spokesman for the fire service said. ‘It was a big fire and we had to roll a lot of hoses out to get at it.’

After a considerable amount of work, the two units managed to bring the fire under control after around an hour, however, that wasn’t the end of the crew’s shift as they were immediately called to another gorse fire at Vinegar Hill. This one, however, was said to have been much smaller and easier to control.

The Fire Service are reminding people to take care with cigarette butts and have urged people not to light any open fires at the moment. Most importantly, they have asked the public to watch out for any signs of fire or smoke and report them immediately to the emergency services through the 999/112 system.