Large areas of Dublin’s North Bull Island nature reserve were left scorched yesterday after high winds caused a fire to quickly spread across the island’s dunes.
Locals believed the fire may have been started by a group of teenagers.
A number of units of the fire brigade were called to the scene shortly after 3pm. Due to the blustery weather conditions, it took the crew some time to bring the fire under control.
Ronan McNulty and his wife Aileen, who run the bar and restaurant at St Anne’s golf club on the island, alerted the fire brigade after they noticed the blaze swiftly gathering pace around a kilometre away from the clubhouse.
“The fire got hold very quickly because of the wind,” said Mr McNulty.
“People saw teenagers running off from the area where the fire started. Those who were responsible probably didn’t realise it was going to go so far.”
Eamon Weir, a member of St Anne’s golf club council, estimated that two to four kilometres of the reserve had been affected.
“We sometimes see little fires on the dunes but I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.
Home to Dollymount beach, North Bull Island was declared a bird sanctuary in the 1930s, a Unesco biosphere reserve in 1981 and a nature reserve in 1988.
Up to 180 different bird species and 300 species of plants have been recorded in the area.