Woman injured during gorse fire in West Cork

A gorse fire in West Cork was brought under control at Shanavagh in Ballydehob on Wednesday evening, with one woman hospitalised.

It comes as dry and warm weather this week has prompted a status orange forest fire warning to be issued for the upcoming bank holiday weekend.

The alarm was initially raised shortly after 2pm on Wednesday.

Fire services, gardaí, and emergency services attended, and the fire was brought under control at approximately 6pm.

Assisted

A spokesperson for An Garda Síochána said that they assisted fire services at the scene.

“A woman was conveyed to Cork University Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries sustained during this incident,” the spokesperson added.

Independent councillor Finbarr Harrington described the fire as “major”, and said there were a number of units of the fire service in attendance who “stayed there most of the day”.

“It was a substantial enough fire,” he said.

Mr Harrington added that the potential for gorse fires could increase over the years ahead.

“It is something we are going to see a lot more of because what has happened, especially in West Cork along the sea and out the peninsulas, stocking rates on farms have gone way down,” Mr Harrington said.

“Cattle numbers have gone down, sheep numbers have gone down.

“What is happening is the hills are growing away wild, and you have two to three years of growth. And the growth is growing and drying and growing and dying and growing.

“What happens then is when you get this massive dry weather, if there is a fire, that it just takes off and there is no stopping it.”

Fire risk

Meanwhile, forestry agency Coillte has warned there is a status orange high forest fire risk warning in place across the May Bank Holiday weekend due to current dry weather patterns.

Speaking on the importance of vigilance during both this warning and the peak forest fire season, Pat Neville, communications manager for Coillte, said: “As more people begin to venture into our woodlands over the spring and summer months, dryer conditions bring a heightened risk of forest fires.

“In our experience, 99% of forest fires stem from human actions, not natural causes.

“While we welcome and encourage increased visitor numbers to our forests that have since reopened after the damage caused by Storm Éowyn, we want to urge caution for both this upcoming bank holiday weekend and the next few months,” Mr Neville said.

“Please exercise care and refrain from lighting fires in the outdoors.

“If you see a forest fire, do not approach it, and report it to the local emergency services immediately.”