Fires in Wicklow, Galway and other parts

Fire services were under severe pressure in the west and parts of Wicklow, the midlands and northeast over the weekend as a number of gorse fires damaged large areas of vegetation and threatened forestry.

One of the worst affected areas was Galway, where units from Galway city, Loughrea, Tuam, Gort and Portumna were involved in trying to quench up to 20 separate fires in the south and east of the county.

A Galway city fire service spokesman said that forestry was affected in the Peterswell area, but the most serious was an extensive blaze across four to five miles of land to the north of the city on Friday night. Part of the Headford road had to be closed, as smoke was causing a danger to traffic and this resulted in significant congestion on all city routes for several hours.

Some showers of rain on Saturday night and early yesterday helped to quench blazes, but extensive damage has been caused to plant and animal life and vegetation in a number of areas.

Early yesterday, a house fire was reported in Rossaveal, Co Galway, but no one was injured.

There were also gorse fires in Sally Gap, Co Wicklow, Mount Leinster and in the Monaghan area. Emergency services believe the fires may have been started deliberately in some cases, or may have spread during burning of scrub - and were exacerbated by the month-long period of dry weather.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service has warned that it is an offence to cut, grub, burn or destroy vegetation on uncultivated land or on hedgerows or in ditches between March 1st and August 31st.