THE “MINIMAL” damage caused by gorse fires to property and forest in parts of the Cooley Peninsula was in part credited to a new way of tackling such fires by the senior assistant chief fire officer in Louth, Joe Lumsden.
The new method saw the fire service working with the Civil Defence and Coillte to create firebreaks. This involved cutting down some trees in advance of any fires to create openings in forest areas, and then soaking those pathways with water.
If a fire hits one of these firebreaks, it cannot continue any further, which both reduces the fire’s trajectory and makes the environment safer for firefighters.
Crews from Louth were trained in the new method by fire crews from the UK.
Mr Lumsden said the strong winds had intensified the situation over the bank holiday weekend, and at 2am yesterday “staff were on standby in the Carrickdale Hotel in case there was a need to evacuate the residents”.
About 100 people were staying in the hotel and firefighting efforts were focused on a blaze north of Ravensdale and close to Edentubber, both near the hotel at Carrickarnan on the former main Dublin to Belfast road.
From Friday until yesterday morning, crews from Dundalk, Drogheda, Ardee, Dunleer and Carlingford were involved in fighting the fires. At some points there were 10 units working at once. The fire service has been tackling such fires across Louth and the coastal area of east Meath for the last two weeks.
Mr Lumsden said no properties were lost and damage to the forests was “minimal” – it was in these areas that crews had focused their work, he said.
No houses or business premises have had to be evacuated yet and Mr Lumsden said the new approach to tackling such fires had been effective.
“Our crews have been trained in a new approach to woodland firefighting and it has proved very effective. This has been borne out by the fact that we have had minimal damage.
“Louth was the first county to do this training and we piloted the approach,” he added.