The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
30 gorse fires put pressure on Kerry’s emergency services
TD MICHAEL HEALY-RAE CALLS FOR CONTROLLED BURNING
THE Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Josepha Madigan TD has condemned those who started a fire which led to the loss of 150 acres of habitat in Killarney National Park as “reckless and irresponsible”, and she has promised that “the full rigour of the law will apply.”
Gorse fires blazed across Kerry at the weekend with 13- calls outs to various gorse fires in the Killarney area alone and more than 30 across the county putting the fire service under pressure. One of the largest of these was in Killarney National Park, which saw three crews battle for more than five hours to get the blaze under control.
Monday night also saw a large blaze around Caragh Lake, which covered a substantial area of land and which came close to houses .
Killarney Fire Service also attended blazes in Kilcummin, Molls Gap and Loughguittane in recents days, while Tralee, Castleisland and Dingle fire crews battle blazes in Tralee and in West Kerry. One of the incidents on Monday night covered an area of roughly 100 acres between Glanteenassig and Aughacasla and came perilously close to housing – even to within 15 to 20 feet of one farmhouse. Part of this spread to the much-loved Glanteenassig Forest Park, and according to Dingle Fire Service’s Brendan Ferriter, the blaze was likely a result of a gorse fire.
“Our suspicion would be that it was started by someone burning gorse,” he said. “It was huge, about 100 acres. I’d say it started around 10 or 11pm, and we were alerted around midnight. We were at it through the night and only got home at 8am.
“There were five units involved: two from Dingle, two from Castleisland, and one from Tralee, 35 people in all. At the moment everyone is doing social distancing, but that’s not something we can do. You had five crews together from different parts of the county, fellas would be close together, and we all have to back each other up. What these people are doing is illegal, and it puts our personnel in danger.”
Killarney Station Officer Paudie Mangan has re-iterated the call for farmers not to burn gorse during the current pandemic as fires crews are already under pressure and needed for emergencies that may arise.
“We are run ragged. We were out battling the Caragh Lake blaze on Monday night when we got the call for a chimney fire in Killarney and, luckily, we had a crew to go,” he said. “It is illegal to burn gorse now. We are not accepting calls for controlled burning at this time because of COVID-19.”
Deputy Michael Healy-Rae said this week, that while he understood that fire crews were under pressure, this is due to bad land management imposed on farmers.
“The way to control gorse fires is to allow them. The fact that they are not allowed to burn gorse is what is causing these fires. Farmers don’t want to put strain on the services. The best way to control fires is to allow them, and if it is burned regularly, they won’t need the fire service,” said Deputy HealyRae, who has long called for the burning season to be extended. He feels this would help the environment and halt largescale fires.
“Australia stopped burning and it grew wild, and then the fires couldn’t be stopped,” he added.