Multiple wildfires were slowly brought under control on Monday evening in west Cork. The largest of the weekend’s wildfires started on Saturday night and spread to farmland in the Gougane Barra area of the River Lee valley on Sunday. “Thousands of acres of farmland have burned, there are sheep dead,” Gougane Barra Hotel manager Neil Lucey told the Irish Farmers Journal. Listen to his interview in our podcast below:

Listen to "Co Cork wildfire eyewitness Neil Lucey" on Spreaker.

He added that eight fire brigade tenders were at the site on Sunday night and remained in the area on Monday as the blaze continued to burn. “They did an incredible job,” Lucey said, citing the protection of a farmhouse threatened by the flames on Sunday on the shore of Gougane Barra lake.

“The fire started in a neigbhour’s farmland, but it wasn’t our neighbour who started it,” Lucey said, adding that the cause of the incident was so far unclear.

Other eyewitnesses have posted dramatic pictures of the blaze.

Bantry fire brigade reported attending another gorse fire on Friday in nearby Glengarriff, which also came dangerously close to local homes.

The Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture has issued a status orange fire warning, with weather conditions expected to cause the highest level of risk this Monday. Forest owners are urged to remain vigilant and have fire-fighting tools ready in case of an emergency.

Additional reporting by Tommy Moyles.

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