Careless day trippers blamed for forest fires

Day trippers have been blamed for a spate of fires which damaged forests, threatened homes and destroyed hundreds of acres of gorse and scrub in the Dublin and Wicklow mountains at the weekend.

Coillte, the State forestry company, said the fires were the worst on record for this time of year. The company used a helicopter to ferry water from the Liffey to bring the blaze under control. A spokesman was unable to estimate how many acres of plantation had been lost. The cost of the damage will be assessed tomorrow.

At its height on Friday afternoon a fire at Coillte's Kippure plantation crossed the Sally Gap to the Blessington road and completely surrounded a house which had been evacuated. A number of holiday cottages in the area were also threatened.

Dublin and Wicklow fire brigades, the Army, FCA, Civil Defence and Dúchas rangers had battled a number of fires in the vicinity of the Dublin-Wicklow border since Wednesday last. By Friday afternoon neighbouring Coillte and privately-owned plantations at Athdown and Ballylow were threatened.

Firefighters working through the night until the early hours of Saturday morning were able to keep the blaze away from forests in these areas, although several hundred acres of gorse and scrub were burned.

According to the Coillte co-ordinator in the area, Mr Tom Lyng, the company has definitely lost part of its plantation, although he said he "wouldn't even guess" how much was involved.

A spokesman for Dublin Fire Brigade said the fires were most likely started by careless visitors.

Hundreds of acres of scrubland and forestry were burning last night in an area around 10 miles east of Killarney as fire fighters battled to save up to a dozen houses from being caught in the blaze.

A forest fire was spotted around noon in the Anablatha/Gattabawn/ Gneevegullia area between Killarney and Rathmore and a number of callers alerted the fire service. Yesterday evening six units of the fire service, and 50 firefighters as well as civilians were fighting the blaze which was spreading over the entire area.

"The area is so big. That is what's beating us," assistant chief fire officer, Mr Donal Guerin said at the scene.

In Northern Ireland six teenage army cadets managed to escape from a forest fire in Slieveanorra Forest Park, near Newtowncrommelin in Co Antrim.