Gorse Fires in Oranmore

Chicken1

I live in Galway and dont ever recall people being evacuted from their homes every year, last night was a crazy night for fires the likes of which I never saw before, I have friends in the Fire Service and it was the worst night that they have ever seen with peoples homes in several parts of the County in danger of being caught up in the fire. The people who light these fires should be locked up its criminal what they do and I dont care if they want to clear land, if it has to be done it should be controlled burning and not lighting fires in strong winds.

Gambas

Someone will have to die or be badly burned before this practice stops it seems.

Storm 10

Heard Galway Fire Service head man on the news saying that in two cases the fires reached the central heating tanks of two homes and were set on fire, now that is serious, they are currently dealing with four new fires.

Sponge Bob

The best way to protect houses is use a slurry spreader full of water (not slurry) to spray a large curtain of water between the fire and the house...eg right over the house from the far side to the fire. The fire brigade has no slurry spreaders but there are plenty in East Galway.

Brad768

Sponge Bob wrote: »

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.

Yeah decided against it as I got to Moycullen, just in case. Went out to Oughterard to a spot where you can look down on Lough Corrib and was able to see 3 fires on the horizon around the Moycullen-Spiddal direction.

Cheers for the heads up though

amen

They are setting fire to their land with the intention of clearing it to allow turf to be cut

I assume they applied for a license to light the fire and notified the Garda/Emergency Service/Council as required ?

The best way to protect houses is use a slurry spreader full of water

Best way is not to have people lighting random fires!

Lapin

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The best way to protect houses is use a slurry spreader........

Yeah, thats one way.

Finding the assholes who start the fires and locking them up is another.

Redhairedguy

Lapin and antoobrien. You're just arguing in circles now, and all sense of civility has gone out the door.

Telling each other to 'grow up' and calling people 'morons' is completely counterproductive and disrupting to the flow of the thread.

FFS, can we not just have one conversation without it descending into an argument and snipe-fest?

Simply put, with this thread 'heating' up so much, and the amount of 'flaming' that's going on, I'm feeling 'burned' out. Any more and it's gonna 'light a fire' under my ass to lock the thread.

Lapin

Redhairedguy wrote: »

Simply put, with this thread 'heating' up so much, and the amount of 'flaming' that's going on, I'm feeling 'burned' out. Any more and it's gonna 'light a fire' under my ass to lock the thread.

kraggy

Fires still going.

http://m.rte.ie/news/touch/2013/0402/379402-connemara-gorse-fires/

Not newsworthy my arse.

emptybladder

The Garda chopper is on its way to help. This sounds very serious :-(

(Source: http://www.facebook.com/ConnachtTribune)

Redhairedguy

Yeah. I lived in Oranmore for the first 23 years of my life and never heard of things being this bad.

Also, I'm sitting in a building in Spiddal, and the smell of smoke in the air is mental. :eek:

snubbleste

There is one within city limits!
Boley Beg East on the Rahoon Road where a bog fire has also been reported.

Storm 10

emptybladder wrote: »

The Garda chopper is on its way to help. This sounds very serious :-(

(Source: http://www.facebook.com/ConnachtTribune)

Thats good news, the GASU EC135 Helicopter can spot the fires and direct the Fire Brigade to where exactly they are needed, great use of thermal imaging & Inter Service work.

snubbleste

Next thread: Spot the Garda helicopter.

Redhairedguy

Just drove back from Spiddal there. The fires are still raging.

yer man!

I saw the remains of the Oranmore fire, looks like it was getting pretty dangerous last night just before it was extinguished, the vegetation was burned right onto the dual carriageway.

Mrs OBumble

Lapin wrote: »

Fanning the flames, so to speak. IBTL.

Redhairedguy

You mean to tell me that Lapin's post didn't mean that they're my fan?

I'm upset.

Discodog

There's an eery glow in the night sky over Spiddal. I really hope that the idiot who started this gets prosecuted & a big bill.

Anyone lighting a fire in a gale is an idiot. This wasn't a knowledgeable farmer carrying out a time honoured practice. You never light a fire at the bottom of a hill when a gale is blowing up the hill.

I thought that Gorse burning was illegal after February to protect nesting birds.

Notch000

any update this morning? , I was out looking round lastnight and there were still fires buring all round the place at 2230, the fire bregade were doing some serious work controlling part of it fair play to them, there was also a chopper with a bucket dropping water on it, some sight

antoobrien

Discodog wrote: »

There's an eery glow in the night sky over Spiddal. I really hope that the idiot who started this gets prosecuted & a big bill.

Anyone lighting a fire in a gale is an idiot. This wasn't a knowledgeable farmer carrying out a time honoured practice. You never light a fire at the bottom of a hill when a gale is blowing up the hill.

The theory on the one in Oranmore is that it was someone throwing out hot ashes.

It's understood that the incident in Oranmore began shortly after 7.30pm and Galway Gardaí confirmed this morning that they are investigating reports that the blaze may have been started when smouldering household ashes were blown into by strong winds and set vegetation alight.

antoobrien

So much for it being the farmers.

http://galwayindependent.com/20130402/news/several-areas-hit-by-overnight-gorse-blaze-S1221.html

The source of the Barna fire is not yet known but Galway Fire Service are appealling to Galway residents to refrain from burning any materials near their home.

"With the conditions the way they are, with very dry ground and strong winds, anything from a discarded cigarette to someone burning household materials could start a fire that will spread very quickly so we would be trying to get the message out there that people can't be burning," he said.

Acidflash

I can see the fires in the hills on the other side of the lake from cloonboo.

Seaneh

Are the fires still blazing between Spiddel and Moycullen?

dloob

Discodog wrote: »

There's an eery glow in the night sky over Spiddal. I really hope that the idiot who started this gets prosecuted & a big bill.

Anyone lighting a fire in a gale is an idiot. This wasn't a knowledgeable farmer carrying out a time honoured practice. You never light a fire at the bottom of a hill when a gale is blowing up the hill.

I thought that Gorse burning was illegal after February to protect nesting birds.

Any fires between March 1st and August 31st are illegal.
Illegal burning that gets out of control is a big problem every year but noting gets done about.
The Gardai say they are investigating.

The gorse will be happy it loves fire, it's highly flammable and the fire encourages the seeds to germinate.

Notch000

dloob wrote: »

Any fires between March 1st and August 31st are illegal.
.

I thought all sorts of outdoor rubish & farm fires etc are off all year round now ?

antoobrien

Notch000 wrote: »

I thought all sorts of outdoor rubish & farm fires etc are off all year round now ?

Yes that's true, but the post is dealing specifically with burning on land for cultivation which is one of the exceptions. The department of agriculture code of practice as drawn up by the forestry service has some guidelines on the details of when and how to burn.

Under Section 40 of the Wildlife Act 1976, as amended by the Wildlife (Amendment) Act, 2000, landowners are prohibited from burning growing vegetation on land not yet cultivated, between 1st March and 31st August of any given year.

Brad768

This isn't in relation to the gorse fires but did anyone else notice big black smoke rising from around the Clareview Park area around this time? Was coming back home out of town and as we passed GMIT we could see thick black smoke rising from around the housing estates. Hope it's not a house fire

Lapin

Brad768 wrote: »

Hope it's not a house fire

If it is, lets hope the fire services aren't all too busy out in Barna and Furbo putting out gorse fires lit by careless people.