Gorse fire causes threat to Knocknacarra houses

SEVERAL fire brigade units battled for over four hours last weekend to bring a gorse fire in the Knocknacarra area under control, which at one point had posed a threat to a number of local houses.

The alarm was raised shortly after 7pm on Saturday evening last when the fire ‘took off’ in an area of gorse and furze between the Clybaun and Ballymoneen Roads.

Up to 20 firefighters were involved in tackling the blaze with crews from the Athenry station also called in to contain the fire which threatened to come close to a number of nearby properties.  There were concerns that the heat from the flames could pose a danger to oil tanks located at the back of the nearby houses – the flames could be seen from miles away.

A spokesperson for Galway Fire Brigade told the Galway City Tribune that they had a number of units tackling the fire from shortly after 7pm to 11.30pm.

“We had concerns about the fire posing a threat to a number of houses in the vicinity, but the blaze was brought under control before midnight on Saturday without any damage being caused,” said the Fire Brigade spokesperson.

A Garda spokesperson confirmed that they had been contacted about the fire around 7pm on Saturday evening, adding that the cause of the fire was not known.

Last Saturday’s fire came after over two weeks of extremely dry weather which led to Met Éireann issuing an orange level fire alert at the end of March.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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