Hopes Tipperary wildfire could be quelled in coming days
By Rebecca Black, Press Association
It is hoped that a wildfire in Co Tipperary could be quelled in the coming days.
However senior firefighters have cautioned that much depends on weather conditions and wind direction.
Firefighters have been trying to extinguish the blaze in the Slievenamon area, near Clonmel, since it broke out on Monday.
The Air Corps has provided aerial support, including by dropping buckets of water on the flames in a bid to stop them spreading.
On Wednesday afternoon, Tipperary County Council said a change in wind direction had caused it to spread to an adjoining Coillte forest and that additional resources were brought in.
On Thursday the semi-state forestry company said a “significant wildfire” remains active on the mountain.
It said personnel remain at the scene alongside Tipperary Fire and Rescue Service and Air Corps crews and said two helicopters are supporting operations from the air.
On Friday, chief fire officer with the Tipperary Fire Service John Shinners said the wildfire on Slievenamon is moving towards new fuel on the north-eastern corner of the mountain.
“We had a really, really good day yesterday. This morning, we were changing wind direction,” he told RTÉ.
“The southern end of the mountain, which was causing us the most concern up to this point, it’s not extinguished, it’s less active and it’s an area we are going to be keeping an eye on, but we are seeing a movement of the fire towards the north-east corner of the mountain,” he said.
Acting senior assistant chief fire officer with Tipperary Fire and Rescue Service Carol Kennedy said that the fire had subsided on the south side of Slievenamon overnight.
“There are a number of hotspots that we’re going to target today, and Civil Defence were down with their thermal imaging drone this morning,” she told RTÉ.
“There is a large fireline but we have aerial support again coming this morning and we have more men on the ground to help on that front.”
She cautioned that wildfires are very hard to predict due to the extent and the nature of them, adding that much depends on the weather and wind direction.
“We’re hoping within the next couple of days that we will really see a wind down with this fire,” she said.
