Fears for wildlife in island fire
SOME wildlife including mallard nests were destroyed in a blaze on Rough Island which was battled by crews from Killarney Fire Service for two days.
A Killarney Fire crew had to be ferried to Rough Island on Thursday last to battle a blaze on the island which is located between Copper Mines and Muckross.
This is the first time in 35 years that crews had to make their way by boat to the battle a blaze - the last time was on Inisfallen island.
The call to travel to the island came around 8pm on Thursday evening, after smoke was seen on the island, and a boat was tasked to bring fire-fighters and their equipment to the island where they spent a number of hours battling the blaze in a bid to save the wildlife which is native to the island. The island is home to Mallard ducks and tragically some of their nests were destroyed by the fire. The gorse was also burned on the island and continued to smoulder for some days after. The main concern was the danger to wildlife of the island and aside from ducks there are also deer on the island. It is believed that the blaze may have been started by a camp fire on the island but it is being treated as accidental.
Fire crews used mobile pumps to fight the blaze taking water from the lake. They spent more than four hours on Thursday night before nightfall getting it under control and returned on Friday for most of the day to contain the fire. On both occasions they made theri way by boat bringing their equipment with them.
Members of the National Park and Wildlife Service have been to visit the island since the blaze to survey the damage. Thankfully most of the wildlife was saved and the fire was brought under control within a short space of time by the crew on the island. FENIT RNLI have again called for people to extra vigilant while using the sea after they responded to two separate callouts over the past week.
On 1:23am on Monday July 23, the volunteer crew of the Fenit RNLI responded to reports that a red flare distress signal had been seen in Ballydavid near Smerwick Harbour.
A search of the area was conducted by Fenit RNLI for a number of hours but no signs of persons in danger was found.
Valentia Coast Guard and the Fenit RNLI were satisfied that the search had been very comprehensive and stood down the lifeboat.
In a separate call for assistance by Valentia Coast Guard on Tuesday evening of July 17, Fenit RNLI lifeboat responded to a call for assistance at Sauce Creek located between Brandon and Ballydavid. The all weather lifeboat was launched and went to the scene where a vessel had gotten into difficulty.
The vessel was towed to Brandon Pier and all persons were returned to shore safely.
“Be extra vigilant while using the sea particularly during this spell of good weather and added if at any time you see someone in trouble in the water or need assistance at sea, call 999 or 112 and ask for the Coastguard,” said Lifeboat Operations Manager Fenit RNLI, Gerard O’Donnell.