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Dublin

29th May 2020

Dublin Fire Brigade warn against campfires and BBQs as heatwave to continue

Brian Dillon

Dublin Fire Brigade has issued a warning against campfires and BBQs as the hot weather is predicted to last well into the bank holiday weekend.

The service has responded to several wildfire incidents in recent, many of which were started by campfire and BBQs.

In a tweet, Dublin Fire Brigade said, “There is an ORANGE fire warning in place for wildland and forest fires issued by @agriculture_ie. It is in place until tomorrow.

“If you are enjoying these areas in your 5km exercise area remember no campfires, no BBQs. Let’s protect our natural habitat.”

Earlier this week, firefighters from North Strand had to respond to a blaze in woodland in Sutton. They wrote in a tweet, “Yesterday, Firefighters from North Strand extinguished a fire in woodland in Sutton as a result of a campfire. The same crew were later involved in the rescue of two people from the sea in Clontarf. Nuisance fires can divert resources from life-threatening emergencies.”

Station Officer with Dublin Fire Brigade, Darren O’Connor said:

“These fires take resources away from the city and county. They’re very intense fires to fight, they’re very hard for firefighters to work in, in the hot weather.

“They’re generally in areas that have remote access and poor water supplies so they drain on resources from different parts of the city as we have to send additional appliances.”

He added, ”

There’s often amber and orange warnings in place for forest fires, so if people are camping, we’d ask them to be really mindful that the vegetation is tinder dry.

“Our advice is not to use open fires, not to use disposable BBQs if at all possible. We have seen [them] start fires in recent days so we’d appeal to people not to use them.”

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