West Sligo forest and bog fires cause severe damage
THE Cathaoirleach of Sligo County Council Councillor Tom MacSharry has paid tribute to the Fire Service personnel who have been working around the clock over the past week treating forestry and gorse fires around the county.
“At our recent Council meeting we paid a public and heartfelt tribute to all our front-line workers who are showing exemplary dedication during the Covid emergency.
“In the last week we have seen this further evidence of this outstanding professionalism and courage from our Fire crews, who have been working in challenging and often dangerous conditions in treating incidents of fire all over the county.
“In West Sligo in particular, they worked tirelessly since last Friday with support from their colleagues in Mayo, Leitrim and Donegal Fire Services to evacuate and protect households and property that were threatened by the fires.’ ”
Director of Services Tom Kilfeather commended Acting Chief Fire Officer Marian Coakley and the Fire Service teams from Sligo and the surrounding counties.
“Emergency Services personnel perform a critical and highly valued service to our communities. In protecting life and property they literally put their own lives at risk, as indeed occurred in recent days when one of the fire crew required urgent medical assistance, and is thankfully making a full recovery due to the prompt actions of his colleagues and the medical team.
The fire began on Wednesday around liunchtime and the main Sligo to Ballina Road (N59) had to be closed as smoke billowed from the fires restricting the views of drivers. The road was down to one lane on Friday as crews dealt with areas which reignited.
Acting Chief Fire Officer Marian Coakley said that despite rain over the weekend, crews were back out in west Sligo on Sunday to address some hot spots.
“We had to go back out on Friday and on Sunday we had one unit, there were some hot spots and the rain wasn’t enough to extinguish them, but as of now it’s OK.
“It [the rain] wasn’t enough because all these forests would have a lot of undergrowth and that and build-up of pine needles and that so we actually had to dig out some of that to extinguish it.”
Having tended to the extensive fires in the Culleens and Dromore West areas, which in both cases involved the protection of houses in close proximity, Ms Coakley praised the efforts of the fire crews and indeed locals who helped battle the blaze.
“For our own crews, all four of them were out, we had Mayo crews, Donegal and Leitrim, Coillte and the local people as well were very helpful. Local farmers as well even provided water tankers along the road dampening down.
“We had three house fires going on as well during the week which had to be attended, so when resources are gone to these forest fires it drains our resources plus the fact crews needs to rest as well, they are long jobs.”