Firefighters in south Kerry spent more than seven hours fighting wildfires that threatened a number of homes in the Cahirsiveen area earlier this week.
The fires broke out on Monday afternoon, with firefighters from Cahirsiveen and Killorglin still battling the gorse fires into the early hours of yesterday morning.
The fires, which threatened two houses at Kilcoman, and four homes at Castlequinn, were brought under control by 5am by some 20 firefighters from the Kerry Fire Service.
Kerry County Council Acting Chief Fire Officer Maurice O'Connell said it was a busy, long night with the service dealing with ten wildfires across the county in the past week.
The number of call outs, he said, have fallen significantly in recent years from a high of 600 in 2010, mainly to the fire service teaming up with farming organisations and educating landowners to burn responsibly.
The service has seen a welcome increase in the number of controlled burn notices where landowners advise the fire service that they plan to burn gorse and take suitable precautions.
Forty-nine controlled burn notices were logged with the fire service in the past week which Mr O'Connell said saves their resources, ensuring they are available to respond to other emergency calls.
Farmers have been taking advantage of recent dry weather to burn gorse, which they can legally do up to 1 March as long as it is done in a controlled manner.
However, Mr O'Connell said a small majority of landowners continue to burn irresponsibly and "these are often the ones we are called out to".
He said they would encourage landowners who are legally burning gorse to do so responsibly, take precautions, and notify fire control of their intention to do so.
