Firefighters have yet another busy weekend tackling massive gorse fires

Fire Services has yet another busy weekend of fighting gorse and grass fires across the country as the dry weather continues.

Yesterday evening, Dublin Fire Brigade were tackling a gorse fire on Carrickbrack Road in Howth. Earlier in the day, firefighters from Dun Laoghaire responded to a grass fire on the Enniskerry Road.

On Sunday night hundreds of acres of land went up in flames because of a gorse fire in Fintown, Co. Donegal. On Friday night, firefighters responded to a hill fire in Annamoe too.

Meanwhile, crews of firefighters in Cork were battling a series of gorse and wildfires over the Bank Holiday Weekend.

People are being urged to be careful in relation to fires during the spate of warmer weather. The risk of fires is exacerbated by dry weather conditions at the moment, and people should take care with rubbish, cigarettes and BBQs when out and about.

These fires can occur by accident, by dropping lit cigarettes or leaving glass bottles behind on a sunny day.

Of course, they also can be started deliberately.

Farmers are permitted to burn land between September 1 and February 28, but farmers have considered this time-frame “too narrow due to climatic conditions” to carry out the burning.