Rain a welcome relief after gorse fires

Rain a welcome relief to fire services


Anton McNulty

THE rain over the weekend was a welcome relief to the Mayo Fire Service which was tackling gorse fires throughout the county for the last number of days.
Over the weekend there were gorse fires in Ballycroy and the last week has seen a number of gorse fires around the county with nearly all the fire units from around the county called out to tackle the blazes. The warm weather over the last week has resulted in the heather and grass becoming extremely dry and coupled with a northerly wind the conditions are ideal for fires.
Despite the rain which fell in recent days, the public have been urged to continue to undertake extreme caution when dealing with outside fires with the conditions still ideal for gorse fires.
Seamus Murphy, Fire Officer with Mayo County Council told The Mayo News that the fire service has been particularly stretched over the last week and called for the public to be extremely careful.
“We have got a lot of calls since last Friday and last Sunday up to nine of our 12 units in the county were out. This is typical of this time of year when a combination of the fine weather and the lack of green growth and other factors led to the fires. Our advice right now to the public would be to have extreme caution when dealing with fires. The smallest thing can cause substantial damage and if our service is extended beyond our capabilities we might not be able to get to the more urgent cases,” he said.
The public have been urged to contact the local fire service if they notice a fire and not rely on other people to call them instead.