Roz Purcell on 'scary' Slievenamon wildfire near home: 'I hope nobody ever has to go through this'
The burning forestry on Slievenamon Mountain. Crews continue to fight the wildfires. Picture: Roz Purcell/Instagram.
Roz Purcell has urged people to stay away from Slievenamon Mountain as dangerous wildfire continues to spread toward the homes of many locals.
The fire, which started on the mountain earlier this week, has engulfed surrounding woodland and is making its way toward the homes of residents, despite the best efforts of Tipperary Fire and Rescue Service, the Irish Air Corps, and local farmers.
On Wednesday, locals began emptying their homes in preparation for an evacuation as the fire tore through nearby woodland – which has become dry and coarse in the recent high temperatures.
In an attempt to protect their homes from being destroyed by the fire, locals rallied together, filling slurry tanks of water and creating road ‘breaks’ between the mountain and their homes.
2FM presenter Roz Purcell has been documenting her family’s experience on Instagram and became emotional on Wednesday evening after a long day of “lifting stuff and moving”.
Purcell, whose parents live at the foot of the mountain and whose sister and brother-in-law recently built in the area, said: "Basically, my parents live at the bottom of the mountain, my sister Rachel lives at the bottom of the mountain looking up at it. So their house is covered in smoke now, depending on the wind. Whereas my sister and my house… we're right at the top of the tree line.”
Purcell revealed last year on social media that she had purchased a forest to save it from being knocked down and to plant native species and let the light back into the land.
Now, the forest is at risk of being burnt to the ground.
“Then my forest, then Coillte all around it, and the fire started just above it, and now they’ve gone right and left of it,” she said, adding that it was very hard to get a concept of where the fire was because of how thick the smoke was.
“It’s kind of scary not knowing what’s happening,” she said.
On Wednesday evening, Purcell updated her audience on Instagram by informing people that her family was taking their belongings out of their home. The family cat, Mrs Doubtfire, who is famously nervous, went climbing trees, but Purcell shared that she was eventually able to catch him and he was safe in his crate.
As the sun came down on Wednesday, residents weren’t sure what the night would bring, with Purcell explaining: “All the locals are trying to create bigger fire roads with machinery.”
Becoming emotional, she continued: “I hope nobody ever has to go through this. I don’t want to cry. I’m actually exhausted from lifting stuff and moving and getting everything ready, but we’ve no idea what’s going on.”
Asking people who are not from the area not to visit and disrupt the locals, she said: "If you're not from the area, stop coming for a look and blocking farmers coming through to help.
“If you were thinking of coming to have a look at the fires, don’t. They've closed off all the roads so you can only get up here if you live here because there was a huge amount of people here last night [Tuesday night] and obviously, the roads need to be cleared for emergency services. So, don’t come up, stay away.”
Farmers, contractors, Coillte staff and helicopters were all back on site on Thursday morning, as the fire started to reignite because of the wind.
On Thursday morning, Tipperary County Council issued an updated statement, informing the public that firefighting crews remain on site at Slievenamon following overnight monitoring operations and that while conditions stabilised overnight, some fire activity is expected to increase as temperatures rise during the day.
The Council confirmed that firefighting operations, including aerial support, will continue.
Members of the public are urged to continue avoiding the affected area and to refrain from all non-essential travel in the vicinity. The use of drones in the area is strictly prohibited, as they pose a significant hazard to aerial firefighting aircraft and can disrupt emergency response activities.
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