Community spirit shone through during Slievenamon wildfire crisis
Residents, farmers and agricultural contractors swung into action to help Slievenamon firefighting operation
The worst wildfire in living memory on Slievenamon was an ominous and worrying presence for those living at the foot of the great mountain over the past week and a half but it also ignited a huge groundswell of community spirit.
As Tipperary Fire Service crews battled the blaze with the help of Coillte, the Air Corps, Gardaí and other agencies, a parallel community support operation involving local residents and farmers organically swung into action.
Killurney Community Centre where some of the firefighters stayed was inundated with donations of food to sustain them when they wearily descended from the mountainside for a break.
“We are a very small area here but anytime anything goes wrong people are great,” said Ann Grant, chairperson of the centre's committee.
When The Nationalist met her last Friday afternoon, she was standing at a table laden with sandwiches, rolls, fruit, cakes and buns in the centre's kitchen all donated by the public.
Ann opened the centre to firefighters and Coillte personnel and others involved in the operation on the first evening of the crisis – Monday, July 20.
She said the centre's volunteers didn't have to make food for them as people just kept dropping off donations.
“The Minella Hotel sent in a big load of stuff yesterday (last Thursday) and Miss Ellie's takeaway in Clonmel rang in offering to bring in stuff.”
About ten fire crew members were staying in the community centre away from their families at the height of the operation to quell the blaze that erupted first on gorse land above Killurney and by the weekend had spread to the north-eastern side of Slievenamon.
“They sleep and eat here, get up in the morning and come back in the night.
“They are wrecked. The firefighters are fantastic. I don’t know how they keep going,” said Ann pointing to the sleeping bags on the hall's stage.
Ann, who lives down the road at Ballyknockan, and her neighbour were among the first people to alert the emergency services about the fire when they spotted smoke plumes on the mountainside at the back of their homes around 8.30am on July 20.
Little did she know then that the fire would spread so extensively and last so long. Ann recalls that last Wednesday many local residents didn't sleep a wink after the fire spread above them to Coillte forestry following a change in the wind direction. While the smoke was bad, she says she was never afraid for her home.
She was hugely impressed by the response of the firefighters but also the local farmers and contractors who worked tirelessly to spray roadways, vegetation and the fire with slurry tanker loads of water and also used machinery to maintain and tidy firebreaks on the mountainside to prevent the spread of the blaze.
“Fair play to them,” she declared.
Local Fine Gael Cllr Tom Acheson along with Aidan Morrissey co-ordinated the farmers and contractors on the first night they mobilised. He was taken aback at the number of people who volunteered their vehicles and time.
“It was really amazing how many people arrived and supported the effort. The work that was done last Wednesday night was incredible.”
He said Coillte took over the co-ordination of the fleet of tractors and slurry tankers assisting the firefighting operation the following day. There were at least 20 tankers ferrying water up to the mountainside from the Anner River at Thorney Bridge, a loop that took each tractor driver about an hour.
Among the first local farmers to assist the firefighting operation were the Morrisseys, who run a mixed dairy, beef and sheep farm and contracting business at Lisnatubrid, Ballypatrick.
Tom Morrissey Junior said part of their farm is hilly grassland bordering the Coillte wood and last Wednesday evening they became very concerned when the fire reached within a few hundred metres of that land, which was bone dry after the lengthy heatwave.
They drove up full slurry tanks and sprayed them on the roadways and vegetation bordering the Coillte forestry to prevent the flames spreading further.
He said they were joined by neighbours and then by other farmers and contractors from as far as Mullinahone and over the Waterford border. “The first night we worked until 2 or 3am and then we were back on it early the next morning.”
Tom said they continued transporting and spreading water up to around 11am on Saturday. He paid tribute to Clonmel Oil for donating diesel to the farmers and contractors who took part in the operation.
He is exhausted after a worrying and hectic few days but heartened by the community spirit that emerged during the crisis.
“It was great to see everyone pulling together.”