![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5155910_13_articleinline_IMG_4660.jpeg.jpg\" "\\"The")
The blaze bore a threat to at least 30 properties in the area and required a multi-agency response from fire crews across the city and county. Picture: Rory Conlon<\/p>\nThe blaze, which started on Monday evening, rapidly engulfed 26,000sq ft of land near Camden Fort Meagher in Crosshaven.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is believed teenagers started a small fire in grassland that quickly grew out of control.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed have launched an investigation and said enquiries are “ongoing”.<\/p>\n
Paul Brierly, station officer with Crosshaven Fire Service, told the Irish Examiner\u00a0the blaze bore a threat to at least 30 properties in the area and required a multi-agency response from fire crews across the city and county.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe threat to property was off the walls,\u201d said Mr Brierly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were dealing with an absolute monster when we got there \u2014 the easterly wind, which was unusual and strong, was fanning the flames.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was so much at stake, houses were only 50m from the fire, and you couldn\u2019t see your hands in front of your face.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came within 2ft of the first nearby house, so that became a huge priority early on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The blaze bore a threat to at least 30 properties in the area and required a multi-agency response from fire crews across the city and county. Picture: Rory Conlon<\/p>\n
“There were plastic drain pipes \u2014 about 12in in diameter \u2014 in the garden that all melted.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Brierly said units from the Crosshaven, Kinsale, and Carrigaline fire services, alongside crews from Cork City Fire Brigade, battled the blaze on the ground, while members of the Irish Coast Guard and a crew from the Doyle Shipping Group worked to extinguish the flames from a vantage point at sea.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very hairy at the start. I realised within two minutes of arriving that we were dealing with something that was beyond normal capabilities \u2014 we had to move quickly,\u201d said Mr Brierly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe received 31 calls in the space of eight minutes, so that will tell you how bad it was. There was a plume of smoke about five miles long, we were overwhelmed by it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my 25 years of experience \u2014 given what was at stake \u2014 no, [I have never dealt with something like this],\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He said the dried-out vegetation in exceptional weather conditions meant it was “like a tinder box”.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were pumping 320 litres of water per minute across eight lines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was about 9.30\/10pm before I felt any bit of relief. We were under a lot of pressure, but we had great inter-agency teamwork between not only the fire services but the coast guard, garda\u00ed, and residents too.<\/p>\n
Mr Brierly said while the blaze had been extinguished, crew members remained at the site until 1am undertaking dampening measures, with six firefighters returning to the scene by 8am on Tuesday due to ongoing \u201cpockets of smoke\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The blaze, which started on Monday evening, rapidly engulfed 26,000sq ft of land near Camden Fort Meagher in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[79,61,60,43,767,8769],"class_list":["post-550121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cork-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-weather","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}