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Although temperatures have dropped from highs of 30°C, fire crews continue to battle an extremely large number of wildfires for this time of year.
From 9 July until 16 July, 311 fires were tackled by fire services in 10 counties.
Wicklow has been one of the counties worst affected. In the month of June alone, 130 wildfires were attended, when the numbers are usually around 15.
Along the rest of the southeast coast, which has received little to no rainfall, there were 62 fires in the past week.
As harvest 2018 got under way in earnest, there were several incidents of barley fields igniting while work was under way. In Tipperary, a spark from a combine blade making contact with a stone was enough to start a blaze.
Coillte’s forest manager Gerard Murphy told the Irish Farmers Journal that over 50 fires in the last 25 days had damaged around 400ha of the company’s estate. “Most fires are man-made,” Murphy said. “In a number of cases, we have enough information that would indicate reckless or malicious behaviour.”
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