Spark of genius: Drones being used to detect forest fires early

The devices can fly over and film risk areas and spot fires that have just started and which would have remained unseen until too late

Pictures posted on twitter of gorse fires in Cork and Kerry.

Space-age technology is tackling one of the oldest problems on land: Gorse and forest fires.

Already this year, firefighters have been on hillsides and mountains bringing outbreaks under control and preventing further damage.

Coillte and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, as well as fire brigades, are being assisted by drones equipped with cameras that peer through smoke, and sensors for wind direction and for other weather variables.

The drones can capture continuous footage of high-risk areas and spot small fires that would otherwise not have been detected until they had become much larger and harder to contain.

Irish Air Corps helicopters, with an attached Bambi-Bucket carrying up 1,200 litres of water, can also be deployed quickly to outbreaks in remote areas.

Each year, the risk of upland fires increases during Easter, because vegetation drying out after the winter becomes more flammable and can be set alight by a discarded cigarette butt or a spark from a picnic or barbecue.

Many rural and remote communities have been hugely impacted by these incidents, which can damage the environment and economy, endanger lives and other property, and cause fear and anxiety.

Fire-service personnel, forestry workers, troops, gardaí, the civil defence, and volunteers are regularly required to tackle the outbreaks, which can spread rapidly.

Over the past year, these fires have placed additional pressures on emergency teams, whose services are critical to managing the Covid-19 pandemic.

A fire engulfing dry gorse in the West Wicklow Mountains. Picture: Eamonn Farrell/ RollingNews.ie

It is illegal to burn growing vegetation on uncultivated land between March 1 and August 31. 

Persons who do so are liable to prosecution and could face fines, imprisonment, and penalties to farm payments.

Landowners were reminded by the Department of Agriculture, Food, and Marine in recent weeks that it can identify burnt land through satellite imagery and will shortly commence ground inspections in these areas.

Last month, the Irish Farmers’ Association urged the Government to allow the managed burning of gorse during March, because inclement, wet weather in January and February had prevented controlled fires.

But the call was rejected on the grounds that the relevant minister did not have discretion to change the dates, which are enshrined in law.

IFA Hill Farming chairman, Flor McCarthy, said the move would address better vegetative management; help farmers keep land eligible for various Common Agricultural Policy schemes; and reduce uncontrolled wildfires.

“We want to maintain farming in these areas, while respecting the ecological value of lands with gorse and certain types of grass species,” Mr McCarthy said. 

Without farming, these areas would go wild, and the incidence of wildfires would significantly increase.

However, the Irish Wildlife Trust campaign officer, Pádraic Fogarty, said no permits for controlled burning were issued in the north, east, or south of Ireland in 2020, and only two were issued in the west.

Mr Fogarty said that even controlled burning of vegetation on hills is an enormously polluting and harmful activity and is not a practical land-management option in Ireland.

Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore, who raised the issue in the Dáil, said that there have been illegal fires on the same commonage land in the Wicklow Mountains National Park for 11 of the 19 years up to 2019.

“The fire damage has been so frequent and intense, the land may never recover,” Ms Whitmore said. 

“It is not just from an environmental perspective, because the burning of this land also impacted heavily on the air quality in the area, on the headwaters of the Liffey, and on drinking water piped into Dublin.”

Ms Whitmore said illegal fires on that scale also contribute greatly to CO2 emissions and are devastating for birdlife.

“We need to put a major effort into ensuring they do not happen," she said.

"We cannot tolerate these fires anymore."

Ms Whitmore claimed people are burning land because Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine policies incentivise them to do so.

She said the department has identified land that is deemed marginal and scrubby and will not make payments on it in that condition.

“Essentially, we are saying to farmers that if they want payment for that land, they need to make it productive,” Ms Whitmore said.

“We need to make sure that farmers are paid to protect our land and that we value what they are doing in protecting our biodiversity, our environment, our soil, our trees, and so on.

Fire crews battling a significant blaze which swept through forestry, bogland and a windfarm in Co Clare last May. Photograph: Press 22

“We need to rethink and flip what we are doing on its head, because what we are doing is not working.

“We need to work with farmers and local communities and put in place measures that will work,” she said, calling for a government task force to deal with the issue.

Malcolm Noonan, heritage state minister, said wildfires do not occur naturally in Ireland. The main cause is the deliberate starting of fires without concern for the emergency services, the wildlife habitat, communities, or even private property.

“Important upland habitats are destroyed, with local wildlife potentially killed or displaced at a critical time of year for many species,” Mr Noonan said. “These sites are special areas of conservation and among the most precious places in Ireland for nature, and home to thriving populations of rare bird species.

Setting these fires is absolutely criminal, and an all-too-frequent tragedy.

"These fires impact on water quality and on soil stability, on climate and on human health,” he said.

“The National Parks and Wildlife Service has deployed increased fire patrols at its sites in recent weeks and remains in close liaison with gardaí and the fire services,” Mr Noonan said.

“It is important, as we enter into an opening-up of the country in the coming months, that everybody behaves responsibly around our uplands, nature reserves, and national parks.”