Regional emergency response in operation due to forest fire

A regional emergency response has been put into operation in Galway as the Cloosh Valley fire continues to spread. Galway Fire and Rescue Service, the Air Corps, the army, Coillte staff and volunteers are battling to bring the fire under control. According to a Coillte spokesperson, the fire is threatening the welfare of many homes and local communities, as well as causing devastation to vast areas of wildlife habitat. There are three separate fires burning on the land between Moycullen and Oughterard, the biggest of which is 8km wide. Already, 1,500 hectares of forestry (3,700 acres) and 2,000 hectares of bogland (4,940 acres) have been destroyed. Smoke has formed a blanket across the sky in Connemara and into the city, and eastwards as far as Claregalway. The fires escalated this afternoon due to high winds and warm temperatures. However, emergency services are hopeful that low temperatures tonight will help their efforts. Three units of Galway Fire Service are on duty at Galway Wind Park specifically to target any fires close to the windfarm. A spokesperson for Coillte believes a gorse fire was started deliberately and it spread to the forest. “While the cause of the fire at Cloosh Valley has yet to be definitively established, it is believed that the fire originated from deliberately set gorse fires, which subsequently spread into Coillte owned forestry,” he said.