When a group of youngsters set fire to a pile of pallets on the burrows at Clogherhead Beach yesterday evening they very quickly lost control of it and it began to spread through the dry grass.
It was only the quick thinking of people enjoying the bank holiday weekend in caravans beside the Blue flag beach that prevented the small fire from developing into an inferno.
Using fire extinguishers and by beating the embers with shovels and whatever else came to hand the caravanners and the staff from a nearby coffee shop, the Beach Hut, managed to contain the fire until the fire brigade arrived.
Thankfully they managed to prevent the fire from spreading in the bone-dry Marram grass along the dunes behind the Lifeboat station.
All of the units of the Louth County Fire Service stationed at Drogheda were busy on other (minor) call-outs but thankfully the team based in Dunleer were available.
They were on the scene quickly and soon had the situation under control.
A Fire Service spokesperson told Drogheda Life that it was lucky that the wind was coming from the South at the time of the fire.
“If it had been coming from the East there was every likelihood that the fire could have spread to the caravan park and there would have been a lot more damage” he said.
As it was there was one house very close which was in danger. “All it would have taken was a spark to be blown on the wind and that house could have gone up” he said.
The spokesperson, who said that the youngsters who had set the fire had been drinking and ran off when fire personnel arrived, pleaded with members of the public to be aware of the dangers of lighting fires.
