The fire service in Mayo have been dealing with a number of gorse fires over the past two weeks, with every unit battling the fires at different stages according to chief fire officer for Mayo County Council, Seamus Murphy.
He told the Mayo Advertiser that, “We’ve had every unit in the county out at least once dealing with the fires and some a good bit more than once. In the last two weeks it’s become even more prevalent with the wind coming in from the east and the land drying up. It only takes a small breeze to blow the fire in a different direction and it can take off.”
Mr Murphy went on to say that, “We’ve had maybe 10 to 12 different fires in the past few days, we were in Attymass last night (Wednesday ) which has been going since the weekend and we’re dealing with one between Mulranny and Bangor in the Ballycroy region today (Thursday ).”
Limited resources has seen the fire service picking and choosing which fires they deal with on priority basis according to Mr Murphy. “We’ve also had to send two units to help out in Galway with the problems they’re having there. The issue is that we have limited resources and we’re stretched at times when fires like this spark over the county. We have to prioritise which ones we deal with first and work it from there.”
