How a small blaze can turn into an inferno depending on wind conditions
MICK POWER is in a state of high alert as winter gives way to spring and hopefully brighter, drier weather.
The 60-year-old Kilkenny native serves as national risk manager for Coillte and he is readying himself for a very risky time of year in his business.
A lay person with no knowledge of how trees grow might assume that forest fires are most likely to occur in the heat of summer and are surely not a risk after the long and wet winter we have experienced
Not so. Spring is the danger period, from now until May, and there have already been a series of blazes to deal with in Wicklow, which is the country’s most afforested county.
With 35,000 hectares under trees, it is reckoned that 29pc of Wicklow is forestry.
Mick ( ) appeals to anyone visiting woods today to be careful and not to light up. He also asks members of the public to make contact with the emergency services promptly if they spot flames. “Fire is the number one risk,” he reports simply. “A fire means total write-off.” And every fire is caused by humans, he is adamant. He has seen thousands of euro-worth of woodland wiped out in Wicklow and Dublin already in 2018 with outbreaks at Tibradden, Glendalough and Glen of Imaal. At this time of year, sappy new growth has not fully started, with the old growth brown and dry – effectively a tinderbox. Given unfavourable wind conditions, a small blaze may be fanned into an inferno. One fire in Galway last year inflicted €4 million-worth of damage and prompted Coillte to review the fire-fighting operation. As a result, the contacts listed on risk manager Mick Power’s phone cover an impressive range. The full resources of the State are on standby – not only local fire brigades but also the Defence Forces and Civil Defence. One specialist contractor is on call with helicopters to carry ‘bambi buckets’, which are used to scoop up 1,000 litres of water at a time to douse the flames. Mick would rather not be calling up the choppers. He appeals to anyone who sees an outbreak of fire to contact 999 pronto.