FIRE ON THE HILL

A wildland fire in Killiney in July led to a major firefighting and logistical operation

The summer of 2022 was the hottest on record in Europe and saw record-breaking wild res, according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. Wildland res are set to become more frequent, and as one such event in Killiney during the summer showed,

Ireland is not an exception.

Although it was not on a par with the devastating res that swept across southern Europe, the event towards the end of July nevertheless showed just what kind of operational and logistical response is required of Dublin Fire Brigade when unattended land catches re so close to human residences.

Operation

At its peak, the operation that began on 25 July became a seven pump, two water tanker re with 14 DFB units involved, a Senior O cer and Two D/Os in attendance, a Diesel Bowser required for refuelling, and a Logistics Support Vehicle that had to constantly re-supply vital equipment and resources to the re crews at the scene. D/O John Reilly, who at the time of the re was on D Watch Donnybrook but has since moved to C Watch HQ, was the rst D/O on the scene.

“ e initial call came in just before 5pm on 25 July as I was just about to go on duty, so I responded with crews from C Watch who were still on duty,” he tells me. “On the way out, a message came in from one of the other O cers who had arrived and said the re was dangerously close to houses and that his crew were wearing BA sets because of the smoke.

“ e area itself is di cult to access, because the roads are narrow, but when we got there, I could see the re was very close to the houses so we needed to have an immediate plan of action. We made the decision to have two lines of attack initially, to ght the re on Glenalua Road and Glenalua Heights, obviously trying as hard as we could to get as much water on to it as possible to slow the re’s progress.”

A third attack was then laid down from Glenalua Heights to Glenalua Terrace, with a fourth joining them to answer calls of re near houses on nearby Claremont Road.

Calls were put in for a water tanker, a request was made to Dun Laoghaire County Council to increase the water pressure in the area, and a drone pilot was brought to the scene.

Priority

“ e priority was to stop the re spreading to the houses, particularly at Glenalua Heights,” D/O Reilly tells me. “ e gorse was dangerously close to the roo ine because with the design of these houses, the gorse is at the same level as the rst oor, so there was a risk it would spread across.

“I put in the call for increased water pressure, but the problem is that you don’t ever know if that is possible, or when it will happen, so I requested the fourth pump, because I knew we would get that,” D/O Reilly adds. “I knew we didn’t yet have the resources we needed, so I had to manage the operation until we did have them. It was very much tactical mode.”

“ ere was a lot of pressure on D/O Reilly regarding time,” A/C/F/O Greg O’Dyer tells me, “because they had to evacuate houses immediately, the re was within a metre of engul ng houses on Glenalua Heights and Glenalua Road.

“It wasn’t a massive area, but there were a few acres with steep hills and tough terrain, and the gorse was very high, with branches inches thick and too close to property. But D/O Reilly’s decisive action meant there was a lot of valuable property saved in what was a fairly dramatic re.”

D/O Reilly got in touch with the Mobilisation O cer to request both aerial support from the Air Corps and the use of a drone, and although the Air Corps helicopter would not make it until the next morning, the addition of a drone to the operation was something he says was very welcome.

Drone

“Because I was on ground level, it was di cult to be able to see where all of our personnel were within their sectors, and how the re was developing. With the drone, I could instantly get a better view, could see the size of the re, which way it was moving, how fast it was spreading, whether there were any structures or obstacles in the path, and importantly, where the crews were so I could keep them updated.

“Naturally within the job you have to have a trust factor in your o cers and your crews, but there are also things that can happen that can endanger them, and that is why I was so happy with the drone use, because I could see if and when things changed suddenly. You could tell the crews where to go and where there was a risk. It is a valuable tool for every o cer. Using the drone was the best decision I could have made, because it allowed me to see things a lot quicker, and to take action a lot quicker.”

With the situation evolving and threatening multiple structures over several acres, and the levels of smoke rising, D/O Reilly ordered a full evacuation by the residents of Glenalua Heights, with the assistance of gardaí.

A h pump was brought in as the crews tackled four sectors, while a request was made to gardaí to close surrounding roads. By 9pm, A/C/F/O Greg O’Dwyer was updated on events and was soon in attendance, liaising with the relevant authorities to acquire assistance with water pressure and organising water drops.

One person approached the command vehicle to voice concerns about the re approaching his premises, which D/O Reilly had to investigate.

“Once I realised what the situation was at this particular building, I had to request Pump 6, and a second water tanker,” he tells me. “ ere was a fuel tank near the house and we needed a di erent access point, which was di cult because the roads were already congested, so we had a big logistical task to move vehicles to allow another pump to get through.

“ at house had the only structure that ended up being damaged, a pump house, but that was done through excellent decision-making by the technical commander who was at that scene, because he saw there was a priority decision to be made regarding this structure.”

Meanwhile, a sixth and seventh pump were brought in, while the Diesel Bowser was called in from the Logistics Section to refuel the engines at the scene, but logistics also played a vital role in ensuring all crews had the equipment and water they needed, and all of this had to be overseen by the D/O on the scene.

“When you are covering so many di erent areas in di cult and challenging environments, the priority for you becomes crew welfare,” D/O Reilly tells me. “You also have replenishing challenges, for personnel as well as fuel for the appliances, access to move in and out, displaced residents, so there is a lot to handle. e welfare of personnel is always at the forefront of your mind, and you have to balance the needs of the job at hand with exhaustion and hydration levels.

“You have to be reactive in terms of dealing with what is in front of you, but you also need to be proactive and be able to plan ahead. Once you know you have the initial threat stabilised to the point where you can take a breather, until that time you can’t relax for one second.” e rst crews were relieved at around 10.30pm, with subsequent crews from all over the city working through the night before other Watches took over on duty the following day to ensure any rekindling threats were kept under control.

“ ere was a lot of equipment used and involved, a lot of appliances,” A/C/F/O O’Dwyer tells me, “and the Mobilisation O cers had a huge part to play. Logistics were bringing up extra equipment all the time, so it was a huge operation. “

D/O Reilly was relieved around midnight, and as morning came, the threat level and required response lessened and the number of pumps in attendance was scaled back, but BA sets and other equipment, including water, had to be constantly replenished.

Aftermath

e Air Corps began making water drops from just a er 8.30am, which A/C/F/O O’Dwyer said “made a signi cant di erence to dampening down the hard to access areas of thick gorse growth”, but the decision had to be made to continue having a re ghting presence for the next 24 hours to continue the re picket and damping down.

“ e wind kept coming up the hill and churning up the re,” A/C/F/O O’Dyer tells me, “and when the gorse burns that heavy and the ground underneath is bone dry, under the surface of the earth you have a thermal blanket, so even when you put out the re above it, the heat from below keeps coming up and ignites whatever stubble is le , so we had to keep it at bay.

“It is hot and di cult work, dragging hoses across gorse and working in di cult terrain, but the rst crews there from Dun Laoghaire, Donnybrook and Nutgrove did a great job to save the houses there initially, and then all of the crews involved did very well to keep the area under control the next day.”

D/O Reilly was back on the scene the next morning, and with the chance to survey the area, was impressed by the work of the crews involved.

“When I walked from one sector to another, you could see the incredible work that had been done, but you could also see just how close it came to being a much more serious incident,” he tells me. “In the end, no houses were damaged because the crews did Trojan work. Working in gorse and that kind of terrain is not desirable because the risk of injuries is huge, but those are the risks of the job in these situations.”

Increased Risk

ese situations, he remarks, are becoming more common, and are only going to become more frequent as people continue to live so close to wildland.

“ ere is a big challenge with the gorse and the threat it poses to properties in fire areas like Killiney,” D/O Reilly says. “ ere is a balance between people wanting privacy and the bene ts of having the wild natural surroundings, and the risks that can then present in the case of a wild re. Homes in these areas are there because of the location being desirable, and you get a lot of bene ts with that, but it comes with a cost because natural vegetation can pose a threat, particularly when it hasn’t burned for years, as was the case here.”

He believes that while improvements are ongoing, DFB is in a good place to tackle any future incidents of this nature.

“It is hugely advantageous for our crews to have the equipment we had to deal with the wild res,” he tells me. “ ere have been great strides made in wild re training but we still have some way to go, better equipment to deal with this risk, because it isn’t going away.

“Great stu has been done with the recruit training in this area of re ghting, and in Dun Laoghaire and Rathfarnham they have speci c equipment to deal with these res, as do North Strand and Kilbarrack on the northside, and we have the jeep to be able to access di cult terrain, but as long as we digest what has been done and what needs to be done, we can address it and move it forward.

“Overall, tackling these situations is a bit of a ‘loaves and shes’ scenario, trying to handle a situation when you need so many resources and have to manage with what you have, and deal with what you can.”