There was a 78% increase in the number of gorse fires this year compared to last year.
An update on the operational work of the Kerry Fire Service was given to councillors at the recent Tralee Municipal District meeting.
The number of callouts for road traffic collisions, and the overall number of mobilisations, also both increased this year compared to 2022.
The Kerry Fire Service were mobilised 932 times from January to the end of July this year, an increase of 19% on the same time period during 2022.
The number of callouts for gorse fires increased from 88 in the first seven months of 2022, to 157 during the first seven months of this year; this is a jump of 78%.
The number of chimney fires in Kerry decreased from 54 to 40 in the same time frame, while the number of other fires increased slightly on last year’s figures.
The fire service was called out to road traffic accidents 109 times from January to July, an increase of 15% on the same period last year.
There were 26 callouts for water pumping or flooding, compared to 0 in the same period in 2022.
The fire service was called to rescue or remove three people from water in the first seven months of this year, and there were eight callouts related to gas or chemicals.
The number of false alarms went down this year, but the number of false alarms classed as malicious increased from four to ten in the space of a year.
