Wildfire risk as drought goes on

TINDER dry conditions are set to continue with no immediate sign of rain, leading to a high risk of wildfires throughout the county.

A Status Red fire alert issued by the Department of Agriculture for the whole country has been extended with Met Eireann reporting that all parts of the country are experiencing ‘an absolute drought’.

Fire services across Louth, as in other parts of the country, have been exceptionally busy attending grass and gorse fires, as well as a number of fires in the Cooley mountains.

Chief Fire Office Mr Eamonn Woulfe says that the fire service in Dundalk, Carlingford and Drogheda ‘ have been very busy over the last few weeks, mainly with rubbish and grass fires.’

He said that while there hadn’t been as many serious gorse fires as might have been expected in the Cooley mountains, they were keeping their fingers crossed that this will continue to be the case.

The most serious mountain fire so far this summer occurred close to the Long Woman’s Grave on Tuesday and the billowing smoke was visible from across Dundalk Bay.

A fire was first reported in this scenic mountain area at 6.40am on Tuesday and was dealt with my a unit from Carlingford Fire Service.

They were called back to the fire in the afternoon and as it continued to blaze, they were joined by two units from Dundalk.

The fire was eventually contained at 10.40pm.

Mr Woulfe said that the Fire Service has been in contact with Coillte in regard to maintaining the fire breaks between areas of forestry and gorse and heather.

Smoke from fires across the border at Flagstaff, which have been dealt with by the North Ireland Fire Service, has lead to a number of calls to the local fire service as members of the public don’t realise the exact location of the fires.

Dundalk Fire Service have also attended at a number of grass and rubbish fires during the week. Two units and a water tanker from Dundalk attended at a grass fire at Cullenstown, Castlebellingham on Wednesday afternoon, before dealing with a field on fire in Castleross. Later that night, they attended at a gorse fire at Carrickarnon.

There was another grass fire on Friday afternoon and a grass fire in Glenwood on Saturday afternoon.

They were called to a grass fire at the Shore Road, Dundalk on Sunday afternoon.

Farmers are being reminded that all controlled burning is banned during the dry weather and any licences which had been issued have been rescinded.

Members of the public are being urged not to light any fires and to be especially careful when using bar-b-ques.

‘ These should only be lit in designated areas or in people’s own gardens and even then they should have a bucket of water or sand on hand,’ said Mr Woulfe.

He also warned against lighting camp fires, saying that the consequences of lighting a fire could be much more serious as conditions are so dry.

‘We would also be concerned about fireworks displays,’ he said, adding that the lighting of ‘chinese lanterns’ is not only dangerous but illegal.

There had, he said, been a huge escalation in the number of calls throughout the whole eastern regional, with the National Call Centre reporting 575 alls for the region in June, compared to 58 calls in April.