Emergency crews battle forest fires overnight in Limerick

EMERGENCY services spent over five hours battling an overnight forest fire in County Limerick.

The alarm was raised at around 3.50am this Friday morning, near Rooskagh outside Newcastle West.

When the fire service arrived at the scene after 4am, they found that the fire was already “quite bad”.

“It was difficult terrain to access,” said the fire service.

It took several hours to get the blaze under control, and some members of the fire service remain at the scene to dampen the area.

They are also tending to a second fire which has started in the same area, according to the fire service.

Four units of the fire service attended the scene throughout the morning: two from Rathkeale, one from Newcastle West and one from Abbeyfeale.

This mornings view at work after a forestry fire ,crews still in place at the top of rooskagh @LimerickFire @FireIreland pic.twitter.com/4V7QuR1TAR

— Mike McMahon (@MikeMac10) July 6, 2018

The fire service has been busy in recent weeks with gorse and forestry fires, due to the dry conditions caused by the weather.

And the dry conditions look set to continue, with little to no rain forecast for at least another week.

A nationwide hosepipe ban came into effect this morning, in an effort to conserve water. The ban will last for a month.