Gorse Fires in Oranmore

Mars Bar

Pretty big gorse fire!

The Galway Advertiser is saying that people are being evacuated from homes nearby. I hope every one gets away safely and I hope it doesn't harm too much wildlife.

There was a few out the Curraghline last week too.

Mars Bar

And one in Barna today!


photo capture by Clint Coen.

plannerscanner

Whats the story with gorse fires? Are they started deliberately??

Scone190

photo capture by Clint Coen.

This looks crazy !!!

Brad768

I get back into Galway around 2 hours ago after being in Birmingham for a week and Galway is ablaze, what the hell has happened!!

Kind of puts a fork in the road seeing as I was planning on a cycle out through Barna tomorrow...

BhoscaCapall

First time it's gone 4 days without rain in an age and half the town ends up on fire

Stereomaniac

What exactly is happening with these, as someone asked above, are they just burned deliberately?

Kristopherus

plannerscanner wrote: »

Whats the story with gorse fires? Are they started deliberately??

Most of them are. Some by farmers and some by scumbags. None by accident.

dilallio

Sometimes farmers burn the gorse to clear the ground for grass or for cutting turf.

Ficheall

Brad768 wrote: »

Kind of puts a fork in the road seeing as I was planning on a cycle out through Barna tomorrow...

Just back from a cycle as far as Furbo through Barna. Saw no fire at all, but a fair few emergency vehicles were away up the road at the left turn at the Twelve Pins pub coming from Furbo. So I suppose on what part of Barna you were planning to cycle through...

thesandeman

There will be a few red faces in the GalwayNews/GalwayBayFM/City Tribune etc office later.
Fair play to the Advertiser for being up to date. They even got an offer from a hostel to look after anyone who had to move out.
Hopefully everybody is ok. It's probably played havoc with the wildlife though :-(


edit: I've found it now on the tribunes Face/Twitter thing but still no updates on the Galwaynews.ie Breaking News section.

snubbleste

Heard it on Raidió Éireann last night. It was the main item on the news bulletin. They mentioned Barna as opposed to Bearna and some place called Furbo as opposed to Na Forbacha.
It's a disgrace.

Brad768

Ficheall wrote: »

Just back from a cycle as far as Furbo through Barna. Saw no fire at all, but a fair few emergency vehicles were away up the road at the left turn at the Twelve Pins pub coming from Furbo. So I suppose on what part of Barna you were planning to cycle through...

Ah right ok, Moycullen-Spiddal it is

antoobrien

thesandeman wrote: »

edit: I've found it now on the tribunes Face/Twitter thing but still no updates on the Galwaynews.ie Breaking News section.

Maybe because they know that gorse fires around easter isn't news, it's clearing bogs.

Lapin

antoobrien wrote: »

Maybe because they know that gorse fires around easter isn't news, it's clearing bogs.

Ah. The good old irony of nearly burning people out of their homes while clearing bogs to cut turf for the fire.

antoobrien

Lapin wrote: »

Ah. The good old irony of nearly burning people out of their homes while clearing bogs to cut turf for the fire.

Homes being evacuated is a standard response. There's nothing "new" in any of the "news" items that the city rags are reporting, hence why the connacht tribune group are ignoring it.

Lapin

Anto,

If you are seriously suggesting that people evacuating their homes to the extent where a hostel in the city feels the need to offer them accommodation while 4 units of the fire brigade remain at the scene isn't newsworthy, then I'd hate to think how you would feel if you ever needed the services of the emergency services yourself.

antoobrien

Lapin wrote: »

Anto,

If you are seriously suggesting that people evacuating their homes to the extent where a hostel in the city feels the need to offer them accommodation while 4

The hostel is just looking for good press.

Lapin wrote: »

units of the fire brigade remain at the scene isn't newsworthy

I'm saying it happens every year around now, so no it's not particularly unusual. I saw the fires on the curraghline last week, my reaction was to wonder whose turn was it this year.

emptybladder

It made the news on the Tribune and Advertiser's Facebook pages all night, great photos too. THankfully, no homes seems to have been damaged.

snubbleste

emptybladder wrote: »

It made the news on the Tribune and Advertiser's Facebook pages all night, great photos too. THankfully, no homes seems to have been damaged.

Badgers, hedgehogs, robins, blackbirds etc don;t have homes?

Lapin

antoobrien wrote: »

The hostel is just looking for good press.

How did I know you were going to say that.

antoobrien wrote: »

I'm saying it happens every year around now, so no it's not particularly unusual. I saw the fires on the curraghline last week, my reaction was to wonder whose turn was it this year.

So if its such an annual event, do those responsible for "clearing bogs" sit down with the county fire chief in advance to make sure he can allocate the resources necessary to deal with the fire?

Do they consider what might happen if the fire brigade might be needed elsewhere on the night?

Are local residents informed in advance that their homes are in danger but told not to worry because some publicity seeking hostel owner in town might put them up for the night?

Is this one of those annual traditions that bog owners claim to be a divine right because generations of their forefathers played with matches too?


Morons.

antoobrien

Lapin wrote: »

How did I know you were going to say that.

Because you thought of it yourself and don't want to say it because it will spoil your falsely righteous indignation

Lapin wrote: »

So if its such an annual event, do those responsible for "clearing bogs" sit down with the county fire chief in advance to make sure he can allocate the resources necessary to deal with the fire?

Grow up, it's just like holloween and the summer bonfire night used to be like they know it's coming. Oh wait they didn't have the summer bonfires in town, never mind.

Mrs OBumble

snubbleste wrote: »

Badgers, hedgehogs, robins, blackbirds etc don;t have homes?

No: as per another recent thread an animal is homeless unless it has a residence in a place run by human-beings.

Lapin

Anto,

If you can't see the difference between a controlled bonfire that takes place on the same night annually and a sporadic wildfire lit anonymously "around Easter" that requires 4 units of the fire brigade to put out, then you are seriously lacking any sense of responsibility or consideration for others.


Its got nothing to do with righteous indignation.

antoobrien

Lapin wrote: »

Anto,

If you can't see the difference between a controlled bonfire that takes place on the same night annually and a sporadic wildfire lit anonymously "around Easter" that requires 4 units of the fire brigade to put out, then you are seriously lacking any sense of responsibility or consideration for others.


Its got nothing to do with righteous indignation.

Lapin wrote: »

Do they consider what might happen if the fire brigade might be needed elsewhere on the night?

Your own words contradict yourself and if you can't see the difference between dozens of callouts to fire services for "controlled" bonfires then it has everything to do with misbegotten righteous indignation.

I wonder if one of the "journalists" involved has family that was evacuated and that's why we're hearing about it now because it happens every year. Did the evacuations make the news last year?

kraggy

Are you seriously trying to say that it wasn't newsworthy? Did you see the pictures? Did you hear about the whole county's fire services being stretched to the limit?

You must have an interest in the bogs concerned if you're trying to play it down and/or justify the mindless practice of PURPOSELY setting fire to an open piece of land.

antoobrien

kraggy wrote: »

You must have an interest in the bogs concerned if you're trying to play it down and/or justify the mindless practice of PURPOSELY setting fire to an open piece of land.

mindless: Having no intelligent purpose, meaning, or direction

They are setting fire to their land with the intention of clearing it to allow turf to be cut - that is far from mindless, in fact it's the definition of mindful.

I have no personal interest in bogs, don't own one and to my knowledge none of my family cut turf. However I know people that do and nothing they do with the bogs is mindless, so perhaps people that know nothing about bogs and how they are managed could stop with the bs and start contributing constructively.

It's not news (to me or anybody with relations in the country) because I'm aware of the fact that this happens every year. perhaps you should be asking yourself why you are not aware of this?

Also if you listen the fire services they appear to get "stretched" every time there's a call out. I've heard that one too often to pay much attention to it - the boy that called wolf and all that.

Btw, I think I've found the real reason for the media storm: there's a tiny bit in the times saying that Gaybo's holiday home in Donegal was within 200m of a fire over the weekend. Funny, after reading the paper through there's no mention of the fires that have been in Galway.

yer man!

antoobrien wrote: »

mindless: Having no intelligent purpose, meaning, or direction

They are setting fire to their land with the intention of clearing it to allow turf to be cut - that is far from mindless, in fact it's the definition of mindful.

I have no personal interest in bogs, don't own one and to my knowledge none of my family cut turf. However I know people that do and nothing they do with the bogs is mindless, so perhaps people that know nothing about bogs and how they are managed could stop with the bs and start contributing constructively.

It's not news (to me or anybody with relations in the country) because I'm aware of the fact that this happens every year. perhaps you should be asking yourself why you are not aware of this?

Also if you listen the fire services they appear to get "stretched" every time there's a call out. I've heard that one too often to pay much attention to it - the boy that called wolf and all that.

Btw, I think I've found the real reason for the media storm: there's a tiny bit in the times saying that Gaybo's holiday home in Donegal was within 200m of a fire over the weekend. Funny, after reading the paper through there's no mention of the fires that have been in Galway.

If you saw the Oranmore fire it wasn't very mindful, wind blowing in the direction of an industrial area from the point of ignition and carrying the fire uncomfortably close to some of the units. Also the place stunk, there was ash everywhere and homes had to be evacuated in some cases.

Lapin

antoobrien wrote: »

Your own words contradict yourself and if you can't see the difference between dozens of callouts to fire services for "controlled" bonfires then it has everything to do with misbegotten righteous indignation.

I fail to see any contradictions as I never defended the bonfires in the city either. Off course they receive callouts from the Fire Brigade as there will always be a moronic element who decide that bonfires aren't enough so they torch the odd car as well.

Don't turn this into some silly city v countryside point scoring lark as there is absolutely nothing defensible about those who light unsupervised fires no matter where they live.

antoobrien wrote: »

I wonder if one of the "journalists" involved has family that was evacuated and that's why we're hearing about it now because it happens every year. Did the evacuations make the news last year?

Sean O'Rourke of RTÉ Radio's News at One is a Galwayman but he doesn't have family evacuated. He was just speaking to Michael Rafferty of the Galway Fire Brigade who expressed concern that these fires could spread to forestry.

He also said that the Brigade in the county was stretched to the limit with units assisting from Athenry, Tuam and Loughrea. Its very lucky that the people in these towns didn't need their fire services last night.

antoobrien

Lapin wrote: »

I fail to see any contradictions as I never defended the bonfires in the city either.

Ah the usual backtrack. You stated that they were different because they were "controlled".

Lapin wrote: »

Don't turn this into some silly city v countryside point scoring lark as there is absolutely nothing defensible about those who light unsupervised fires no matter where they live.

To be quite frank that's what it looks like with the idiotic crap that a few people, who appear to have no clue that this happens every year, are posting. There is a chronic lack of understanding of the structure of Co Galway's fire service going on, but more about that later.

Lapin wrote: »

Michael Rafferty of the Galway Fire Brigade who expressed concern that these fires could spread to forestry.

He also said that the Brigade in the county was stretched to the limit with units assisting from Athenry, Tuam and Loughrea.

That's not at all unusual for any a fire that requires more than one tender to be at the scene, or if there are more than one fire, the second one will be called from one of the above locations - especially if it's east of the corrib.

Lapin wrote: »

Its very lucky that the people in these towns didn't need their fire services last night.

This happens any time there is a fire (bog or not) and often with crashes in Co. Galway. If there is a callout in Athenry and there is a second fire before the first one can be safely extinguished, then the second property has to wait for cover from Tuam or Loughrea to arrive. Then if there's a fire there...... you get the picture. What's worrying to me about all this is that a lot of people don't realise this to begin with.

But as for the thing about the fire services being stretched, I think they have a canned "we're busy" statement because it's the exact same thing every April, almost word for word.

Btw where were all you guys about 10 years ago where there were as if not more serious fires in the spiddle/beanra area?

Sponge Bob

These fires, by and large are just east of the Moycullen Spiddal Road. I would not chance cycling that route....very smoky and rather noxious as you will be cycling through thick smoke for 4 or 5km. There are no fires east of a line from Moycullen to Furbo beach.